UK sanctions Russia’s GRU spy agency over 2018 nerve agent attack

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LONDON (AP) — Britain sanctioned Russia’s GRU intelligence agency and summoned Moscow’s ambassador on Thursday after an inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin was responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil in 2018.

The government said that GRU was being sanctioned in its entirely over the attack in the city of Salisbury that targeted Sergei Skripal, a former Soviet agent who had defected to Britain.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia became seriously ill, but survived.

Moscow has denied any role in the attack.

A British woman, Dawn Sturgess, and her partner collapsed after they came into contact with a discarded perfume bottle containing the nerve agent Novichok. She had sprayed the contents of the bottle on her wrist and died days later. Her partner survived.

A police officer, Nick Bailey, also was sickened, but survived.

Former U.K. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Hughes, who led an inquiry into Sturgess’ death, said that the attack on the Skripals “must have been authorized at the highest level” by Putin.

He concluded that Sturgess was “an innocent victim of an attempt by officers of a Russian state organization to conduct an assassination on the streets of Salisbury using a highly toxic nerve agent.”

The U.K. sanctions announcement also named eight alleged cyber military intelligence officers for working for the GRU. Britain’s Foreign Office said that they targeted Yulia Skripal with malware five years before the Novichok attack.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Hughes’ findings “are a grave reminder of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent lives.”

“Dawn’s needless death was a tragedy and will forever be a reminder of Russia’s reckless aggression,” he said.