Poisoning of Two British Citizens with Nerve Agent Similar to Former Russian Spy Incident

Two British citizens are in critical condition after being poisoned with the nerve agent 'Novichok'. Novichok is the same agent that poisoned former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, further straining relations between Europe and Russia. Neil Basu, head of the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing, told reporters that the Porton Down research facility announced on July 4 that the poisoning of a 44-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man was due to Novichok. The two citizens were found unconscious two weeks ago in the residential area of Amesbury and were transferred to the hospital. Not only is the poison the same agent that nearly took the lives of Skripal and his daughter, but the location where these two were poisoned is also only 11 kilometers away from the site of the former Russian spy's poisoning. Neil Basu stated that the main focus of investigators and security forces is to determine how these two British citizens were poisoned with Novichok. Sajid Javid, the UK Home Secretary, who will lead an emergency meeting regarding the incident, said, 'The current hypothesis is that the poisoning likely occurred accidentally, and there is no second attack similar to that on Sergei and Yulia Skripal.' The head of the UK’s counter-terrorism agency emphasized that finding a connection between these two incidents is part of the core investigation. Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious in mid-March in a shopping center in Salisbury, southern England. The 66-year-old Skripal was previously an officer in the Russian military intelligence. He was arrested in December 2004 and sentenced to prison for passing secret information to Britain and treason; he was granted asylum in Britain in 2010 during a spy swap with the United States and has lived in the country for years. Following the incident, Europe pointed fingers at Russia, which denied all allegations. The nerve agent 'Novichok' was developed in the former Soviet Union, and Britain claims that Russia has continued to produce it over the past decade. Moscow, denying the accusation, claims that the substance used in the poisoning of Mr. Skripal and his daughter was produced in another country. The poisoning of Skripal and his daughter heightened tensions between Europe and Russia and led to a series of actions and reactions, from mutual expulsion of diplomats to bringing the case to the United Nations Security Council.