Poisoned ex-spy’s daughter says wants to return to Russia ‘in future’
MOSCOW: Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned with her ex-spy father in Britain in March, said in a video statement Wednesday she would like to eventually return to Russia but fi rst needed to get better.
“I was discharged from hospital on April 9th but my treatment is continuing,” Yulia Skripal said in a video statement to Reuters which was broadcast on national television in Russia.
“In the future I hope to return home back to my country,” said the 33-year- old woman who wore a light blue dress and a visible scar on her throat.
Yulia Skripal, who is under the protection of the British government, spoke in Russian from an undisclosed location and smiled as she began to speak.
“It’s still hard for me to come to terms with the thought that we came under such an attack,” she said, adding she was in a coma for 20 days.
“I woke to the news that we had both been poisoned,” she said.
“The fact that a nerve agent was used to do this is shocking,” she added.
“We are very lucky to have survived attempt.”
She said she was grateful to Russian diplomats for their help but said she ‘was not ready’ to accept assistance from the Russian embassy at this stage.
“I don’t want to go into details but I would just like to say that the treatment was invasive and deeply depressing,” she said in her first media appearance since the March 4 poisoning in the British cathedral city of Salisbury.
“I try to take one day at a time this assassination and want to help my father until he fully recovers,” she added.
“My life has been turned upside down and right now I am trying to come to terms with incredible changes in my life, both physical and emotional.”
She called on everyone to respect her family’s privacy and thanked all those who helped her.
“My recovery and that of my father remain my priority,” she said.
Russian ambassador to London Alexander Yakovenko has repeatedly demanded access to Yulia Skripal.
After her video statement, the Russian embassy in London said it was happy to see that Skripal was ‘in good health’.
However the diplomatic mission suggested she might be held in Britain against her will and insisted that Russian diplomats needed to see her.
“The United Kingdom has the obligation to give us an opportunity to speak to Yulia directly to make sure that she is not being held against her will and is not making statements under duress,” the embassy said. — AFP