The poisoned daughter of a former Russian spy has reportedly been discharged from hospital after being targeted with a suspected nerve agent alongside her father.
Hospital officials said Yulia Skripal, 33, left the hospital early on Tuesday morning having made a rapid recovery after spending almost a month unconscious and in critical condition.
A statement delivered by Salisbury Hospital Medical Director Christine Blanshard said they “wish Yulia well,” but said “this is not the end of her treatment.”
“Yulia has asked for privacy from the media and I want to reiterate that request,” Blanshard said.
Yulia and her father Sergei, 66, were found slumped on a park bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4. Blanshard said Sergei has also made “excellent” progress and they hoped he would also be released from the hospital “in due course.”
Assessments by the British government concluded they were attacked with a type of Russian nerve agent known as Novichok.
Russia has fiercely denied allegations it is responsible and accused the Brits of fabricating the attack.
Doctors at Salisbury District Hospital said last week that Yulia Skripal was “responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and no longer in a critical condition.”
“Our job in treating the patients has been to stabilise them — ensuring that the patients could breathe and that blood could continue to circulate,” Blanshard said Tuesday morning of the treatments used to save Yulia and her father. “We then needed to use a variety of different drugs to support the patients until they could create more enzymes to replace those affected by the poisoning.”
Shortly after the hospital’s announcement, it emerged that Yulia may have spoken to her cousin in Russia by phone.
A recording which purported to be of the conversation was aired on Russian television, consisting of a brief conversation between the two, with Yulia saying she did not think her cousin would be given a visa to enter the U.K. to visit her.
On Monday, the Russian RIA news agency reported that Yulia is applying for asylum in the U.K.
Over the weekend the British press reported the Skripals may be resettled in one of the western countries involved in the “five-eyes” intelligence-sharing community — the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
