EU backs UK in blaming Russia over spy poisoning

BRUSSELS (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May won the backing of 27 other European Union leaders Thursday in blaming Russia for the poisoning of a former spy on English soil — an attack the bloc called a threat to its collective security.

EU Council President Donald Tusk tweeted that the 28 leaders agree with Britain that it’s “highly likely Russia is responsible’’ for the attack on Sergei Skripal.

In a strongly worded statement later, the EU Council of all the bloc’s national leaders said that “there is no plausible alternative explanation.’’

Calling 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.’’

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.

Russia strongly denies responsibility and has slammed Britain’s investigation.

During a summit dinner, May laid out the reasons Britain is convinced Moscow was behind the attack, including the type of poison used — a Soviet developed nerve agent known as Novichok — and intelligence that Russia has produced it within the last decade.

Britain argues the attack is part of a pattern of behavior by an increasingly assertive Russia whose muscle-flexing, cyber meddling and law-breaking on foreign soil pose a threat to the international rule of law.

May said Thursday that “it is clear that the Russian threat doesn’t respect borders.’’ She said “the incident in Salisbury was part of a pattern of Russian aggression against Europe and its near neighbors, from the western Balkans to the Middle East.’’

EU foreign ministers already had expressed their “unqualified solidarity’’ with Britain. But European politicians and leaders varied in how far they were willing to go in blaming Russia President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave May strong backing, and President Dalia Grybauskaite of former Soviet state Lithuania said she was considering expelling Russian diplomats in the wake of the March 4 attack.