Who is Yulia Skripal and the two named Russian suspects of the Salisbury nerve agent attack?
YULIA Skripal was poisoned alongside her former spy dad Sergei in what the British government believe was a Kremlin-sanctioned hit in Salisbury.
The Salisbury poisonings are the focus of a new BBC One drama.
Who is Yulia Skripal?
Yulia Skripal is the 33-year-old daughter of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal.
Her father was jailed in 2006 after being convicted of selling secrets to MI6.
According to Yulia's Facebook page, she graduated from Moscow State Humanities University in 2008 and the same year she started a job at Nike.
Two years later she moved to London – the same year her dad came to the UK after he was freed in a prisoner spy swap.
Yulia's profile reveals she worked at a Holiday Inn in Southampton in 2014.
It is believed she moved back to Moscow at some point after this.
She has openly criticised Vladimir Putin on Facebook - suggesting that jailing the president would be a "great idea".
Yulia flew to Heathrow to visit her father on March 3. The next day, they were both found collapsed in Salisbury.
They each spent weeks critically ill in hospital but made a near-miraculous recovery and were discharged.
It is believed they are staying at a secret location in London guarded by British security services.
What has Yulia said?
Yulia Skripal broke her silence to reveal she feels lucky to have survived the poison attack but still wants to return home to Russia.
She said: "We are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination. Our recovery has been slow and extremely painful."
"As I try to come to terms with the devastating changes thrust upon me both physically and emotionally, I take one day at a time and want to help care for my dad till his full recovery.
"In the longer term I hope to return home to my country."
"The fact that a nerve agent was used to do this is shocking. My life has been turned upside down."
Who are the Salisbury poisoning suspects?
Scotland Yard said they believe a two-man hit squad was behind the Salisbury attack.
The pair are thought to have left the UK the morning after and could be back in Russia under the protection of Vladimir Putin.
Sources said investigators were determined to bring a criminal case against those responsible.
In September police revealed names and photos of two Russian men wanted over the attempted hit on the Skripals.
Cops issued a European Arrest Warrant for Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov (later discovered to be pseudonyms, their real names are Dr Alexander Mishkin and Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga)
And the CPS said there was enough evidence to charge them with conspiracy to murder.
The suspects were caught on CCTV in Salisbury at 11.58am on the Sunday March 4 “moments before the attack”, police said.
It is understood Petrov and Boshirov stayed in the City Stay Hotel in Bow, East London, during their time in the UK.
Cops searching their room on May 4 - almost two months after the attack in Salisbury - are said to have discovered minute traces of Novichok.
Police said the nerve agent was brought into Britain in a Ninna Ricci Premier Jour perfume bottle with a specially made poison applicator.
Who is Sergei Skripal?
Sergei Skripal was born on June 23, 1951.
He was a Russian officer who was convicted in 2006 of spying for the United Kingdom.
Skripal was accused by Russian prosecutors of working for MI6 in the late 1990s and passing secrets to the British using a James Bond-style spy rock.
At the time, he was serving in the Russian Ground Forces and was nicknamed "the Spy with the Louis Vuitton bag".
As part of a high profile spy swap, Russia released four men in exchange for ten Russian “sleeper” agents including sexy spy Anna Chapman.
Sergei was brought to Britain as part of the deal and had been living a quiet life in Salisbury.
What did the suspects say in a TV interview?
The two men claimed they were just tourists visiting Stonehenge and Salisbury in an interview with the state-run TV station RT on September 13.
The pair said: "Our friends had been telling us for some time we should visit this extraordinary town."
Claiming to be interested in the history of the local area, the pair praised Salisbury Cathedral for its "123-metre spire and its clock, one of the first ever created in the world that's still working".
Despite being filmed "moments before" the botched hit before leaving the country hours later in a flight out of Heathrow, the brazen Russians claimed they spent "no more than an hour" in Salisbury.
Petrov aid they wanted to visit Wiltshire's pre-historic monument Stonehenge rather than carry out a state-sponsored execution on foreign soil.
Boshirov rejected claims they handled nerve agent Novichok or the perfume bottle it was allegedly carried in.
Laughing, he said: "No, that's complete bulls***."
Boshirov continued: “Isn't it silly for decent lads to have women’s perfume?
“The customs are checking everything, they would have questions as to why men have women’s perfume in their luggage. We didn’t have it.”
Their claims were widely ridiculed, with Downing Street describing the interview as an "insult to the public's intelligence".
What did the Chemical Watchdog say?
Independent chemical weapon scientists have confirmed that "high purity" Novichok was used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) carried out tests that confirmed the nerve agent was found in environmental samples collected in Salisbury.
Blood tests also confirmed that the same chemical was found in blood samples taken from the Skripals and Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey - the police officer who first attended the scene.
According to the OPCW report, the chemical was of "high purity" with a complete absence of contaminants.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has described the results as "conclusive".
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Where is the case now?
The conclusion of the case is uncertain.
Scotland Yard officers are still investigating the attack, after charging Chepiga and Mishkin with conspiracy to murder and novichok possession in September.
Sajid Javid has said that as Russia will not extradite the suspects, and they can only be detained if they enter a nation that complies with European Arrest Warrants and Interpol red notices, catching them is unlikely.
“If they ever step out of the Russian Federation, Britain and its allies will get them and we will bring them to prosecution,” the former Chancellor of the exchequer vowed.
When is The Salisbury Poisonings on TV?
The three-part drama will be stripped across three consecutive nights on 14, 15 and 16 June on BBC One at 9pm.
Each episode will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer after they aired.
The drama was previously announced by BBC Two in back May 2019, and began filming at the end of October 2019.
The first episode of the three-part series will be on BBC One at 9pm on June 14.