At a summit in Brussels, EU leaders united behind British Prime Minister Theresa May in blaming Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England, and agreed to recall their ambassador to Moscow for consultations. After the EU firmly sided with May in the escalating conflict reminiscent of the Cold War and said it was ‘highly likely Russia is responsible’ for the attack on Sergei Skripal, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the EU envoy ‘is being recalled for consultations to Brussels.’

May won the backing of 27 other EU leaders at a summit Thursday and the bloc called the attack a ‘grave challenge to our shared security.’

The EU states said they would ‘coordinate on the consequences to be drawn in the light of the answers provided by the Russian authorities.’

May was delighted with the support early Friday. UK Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the EU support, saying that it was right "we are standing together" as the threat posed by Russia "respects no borders and it is a threat to our values". EU states are now considering whether to follow Britain’s lead in expelling Russian diplomats and Latvia said Friday it would expel “one or several” Russian diplomats.“As for the decision taken, we regret in this context that again such decisions are taken using the wording ‘highly likely’,” President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Rutte said over the coming days or weeks, ‘we and our partners must see what the logical next steps are.’ He insisted that any measure ‘must have an added value to this extremely strong political declaration.’

The unanimity was a victory for May. She had been striving at a summit in Brussels to persuade her EU colleagues to unite in condemning Moscow over the attack on Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer convicted of spying for Britain, and his daughter, Yulia. “It’s clear that the Russian threat does not respect borders and indeed the incident in Salisbury was a pattern of Russian aggression against Europe and its near neighbours.”

May accused Russia of the first known offensive use of a nerve toxin in Europe since World War Two after Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter were found unconscious in the city of Salisbury on March 4. Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats they said were spies, and Russia responded in kind, also halting the activities of the British Council cultural and educational organisation.Earlier Friday, British diplomats left their Moscow mission in several minibuses and the remaining diplomatic staff sent them off with a round of applause, Russian television showed. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The war of words between the UK and Russia

The EU has recalled its ambassador to Moscow after leaders agreed it was "highly likely" Russia was responsible for a nerve agent attack in the UK.
The EU ambassador to Russia is recalled from Moscow.