Yulia Skripal: ‘I Woke to the News That We Had Both Been Poisoned’

Yulia Skirpal, the daughter of British spy Sergei Skripal, said in her first interview to the media that her life was “turned upside down” by the poisoning that left her in a coma for 20 days at Salisbury hospital, according Reuters. “The fact that a nerve agent was used to do this is shocking,” she said. “I woke to the news that we had both been poisoned.” Skripal spoke to Reuters from a secret location where she is being protected by the state. She wrote two statements, one in Russian and another in English, and spoke to the camera in Russian. “We are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination,” she wrote. “Our recovery has been slow and extremely painful.” She described her treatment as “invasive, painful and depressing.” Skripal also rebuffed the Russian Embassy’s offers to help, saying that “no one speaks for me, or for my father but ourselves,” in her video statement. She expressed wishes to “to help care for my Dad till his full recovery” and said she would like to “return home to my country” in the long term. The U.K. government has blamed the Kremlin for the attacks, which involved a military-grade nerve agent.