Yulia Skripal has issued her first statement from the hospital in Salisbury, England, saying that her "strength is growing daily".
ADVERTISEMENTYulia Skripal issued a statement through London’s Metropolitan Police on Thursday, saying her “strength is growing daily”. Skripal said she had come out of her coma over a week ago.
Skripal was poisoned last month along with her father, former Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal, who remains in a critical condition at the Salisbury District Hospital.
The statement follows unverified reports of a recording of a phone conversation between her and a cousin in which she was claimed to have said she would soon be discharged.
“I have many people to thank for my recovery and would especially like to mention the people of Salisbury that came to my aid when my father and I were incapacitated. Further than that, I would like to thank the staff at Salisbury District Hospital for their care and professionalism,” she said.
She added that the experience had been “somewhat disorientating”, and asked for her and her family’s privacy to be respected “during the period of my convalescence.”
London has blamed Russia for the attempted murder while Moscow denies any involvement. The episode has had major diplomatic ramifications, with mass expulsions of Russian and Western diplomats.
On Thursday Russia's UN ambassador told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council it had requested, that Moscow had told Britain it was "playing with fire and you'll be sorry".
Britain's ambassador replied that the UK's actions "stand up to any scrutiny". The US representative said Washington still believed Russia was "responsible for this chemical weapons attack on UK soil".
On Wednesday, Russia lost its call for a joint inquiry to be held into the poisoning at a meeting of global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).