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#Russia: 'What is clear is our full solidarity with the United Kingdom' Mogherini

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EU Foreign Ministers are meeting today (19 March) in Brussels. Following the events in Salisbury - where a nerve agent, linked to the Russian state was used to poison a former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia - the UK Foreign Secretary called for a discussion on Russia, writes Catherine Feore.

Boris Johnson said he was heartened with the strength of support the UK was receiving. Johnson said that the UK was punctilious in its compliance with the Treaty on Chemical Weapons. Today, technical experts for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will arrive in the UK to take samples from Salisbury.

Johnson describes Russian denials as growing increasingly absurd. He said that Russia has moved from denying that they made the nerve agent Novichok, to saying that they destroyed all stocks, then suggesting that some of the stocks had disappeared to Sweden, Czech Republic or the UK. Johnson described this as a classic Russian strategy as an attempt to conceal the need of truth in a haystack of lies.

The EU High representative, Federica Mogherini, said that the ministers would hear a debrief from Boris Johnson. Mogherini said that what was clear is that the UK could expect the full solidarity with the United Kingdom. Reporters were told that there would be a renewed EU position that would be presented during the morning.

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Update 11:00

The European Union has issued a statement strongly condemning the attack that took place against Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury: “The lives of many citizens were threatened by this reckless and illegal act. The European Union takes extremely seriously the UK Government's assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation is responsible.”

The EU condemn the use of military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, for the first time on European soil in over 70 years. The use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances is completely unacceptable and constitutes a security threat to us all.

The EU welcomed the commitment of the UK to work closely with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in supporting the investigation into the attack and called for full and complete disclosure of its Novichok programme to the OPCW.

“The European Union expresses its unqualified solidarity with the UK and its support, including for the UK’s efforts to bring those responsible for this crime to justice.

The EU will remain closely focused on this issue and its implications.”

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