The international chemical weapons watchdog has backed Britain’s findings about the identity of the chemical used in the Salisbury nerve agent attack

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said an analysis of samples taken from former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and a British police officer affected in the incident last month confirmed the assessment of the UK Government. We never doubted the analysis of our scientists at Porton Down.”

He said Britain has called a meeting of the OPCW executive council in The Hague for Wednesday to discuss “next steps”, adding; “The Kremlin must give answers.”

In its executive summary, the OPCW said: “The results of the analysis by the OPCW-designated laboratories of environmental and biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirms the findings of the United Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and severely injured three people.”

The OPCW said the name and structure of the chemical was included in the full classified report issued to the governments of member states. Mr Sedwill said “credible open-source reporting and intelligence” showed that in the 1980s the Soviet Union developed a family of nerve agents known as Novichoks at a base in the town of Shikhany near Volgograd, which has been closed since 1997, the year that the Chemical Weapons Convention came into effect. “There can be no doubt what was used and there remains no alternative explanation about who was responsible — only Russia has the means, motive and record.”

The findings come after Yulia Skripal on Wednesday rejected Russian Embassy assistance as she recovers at an undisclosed location.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons states it agrees with UK authorities on their analysis of the identity of the toxic chemical used against the Skripals. The UK identifies the substance as a Novichok nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia.