Yulia Skripal speaks out and insists she’ll one day return to Russia
YULIA Skripal spoke last night for the first time since her poisoning ordeal – and said she hopes to one day return home to Russia. The 33-year-old feels “lucky to have survived” after she and her former spy dad Sergei were targeted with Novichok in Salisbury 11 weeks ago. Speaking from a secret location in London where she is being protected by MI5, a two-inch scar was visible on her throat – thought to be from an emergency tracheostomy to save her life.
Yulia said: “After 20 days in a coma, I woke to the news that we had both been poisoned.
“I still find it difficult to come to terms with.
“We are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination. The fact a nerve agent was used is shocking.”
She said her recovery was “slow and extremely painful” and she was grateful for the care she received at Salisbury District Hospital.
Yulia said: “I don’t want to describe the details but the clinical treatment was invasive, painful and depressing.
“I am grateful to all of the wonderful, kind staff at Salisbury hospital, a place I have become all too familiar with.
“I also think fondly of those who helped us on the street on the day of the attack.
“I continue to progress but my life has been turned upside down. I take one day at a time and want to care for my Dad. In the longer BY ADAM ASPINALL reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk term, I hope to return home to my country.”
But she added that while grateful for the Russian embassy’s offers of assistance, “at the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services”.
Yulia and Sergei, 66, were found unconscious on a bench in the Wiltshire town after the March 4 strike, believed to have been ordered by Vladimir Putin.
Policeman Nick Bailey, who was first on the scene, was also admitted to hospital for treatment and was the first to be discharged.
There were fears Sergei and Yulia would die but she left hospital last month and he was discharged last week. In her filmed statement, Yulia, who also released a handwritten note, said: “I ask everyone respects the privacy of me and my father.
“We need time to recover, come to terms with everything.”
She added: “Also, I want to reiterate what I said in my earlier statement that no one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves.”
Her statement came as Yulia’s gran made a dramatic appeal to Britain on Russian state-run TV for Sergei to be allowed to talk to her by phone.
Yelena Skripal, who will be 90 next month, sat on her bed in a nightdress as she begged to be allowed to speak to her son.
She spoke in a clear voice but by the end, she was in tears.
Yelena said: “I have not seen my son for 14 years, I want to meet him. I want to clasp my son firmly to myself, to my heart. I am 90 years old.”
She also pleaded for Skripal’s niece and Yulia’s cousin Viktoria, 45, to be allowed to travel to Britain to see the former spy.
She has been twice refused visas by the UK Government.
Viktoria, 45, last night spoke about Yulia’s statement.
She said: “The family were happy to see the video as it at least confirms she is alive. This alone is such a joy. The main message was she did say she wanted to be back home.
“I’m having so many calls from all over the world that I didn’t even have time to watch it properly and discuss the video with the family.
“Judging by what I saw, it looks like she’s had a tracheostomy, you can see a scar on her neck.
“And the timing of that video release is so close to her grandmother’s appeal, begging UK authorities to let her speak to her son and granddaughter.
“We just wish we could speak direct to them.
“So far we have had no direct calls from her, nor a call or message from Sergei.”
A Russian embassy spokesman added: “We are glad to have seen Yulia Skripal alive and well.
“However, the video only strengthens our concerns as to the conditions in which she is being held. Obviously, Yulia was reading a pre-written text.
“The UK is obliged to give us the opportunity to speak directly to make sure she is not held against her will and is not speaking under pressure.”
Their Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added that Russia had continuously tried to contact Yulia “to get information direct from the source”.
She said: “We want Yulia Skripal to know that there was not a single day when the Russian foreign ministry and the Russian embassy in London did not try to arrange contact with her, with the chief aim of checking that she is not being held by force, that no one else is being passed off as her.”
Meanwhile, work to completely decontaminate Salisbury is continuing.
YULIA SKIRPAL ON FIGHT FOR HER LIFE IN HOSPITAL