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The foreign secretary has warned in the wake of the report that the Russian president represents ‘an active threat’ to British citizens
Millie CookePolitical CorrespondentFriday 05 December 2025 05:34 GMTComments
CloseDawn Sturgess was an ‘innocent victim of cruel and cynical acts of others’ says Lord Hughes
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Vladimir Putin ordered the “astonishingly reckless” attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal as a “public demonstration of Russian power”, a major inquiry into the Salisbury novichok poisonings has concluded.
The inquiry laid the blame for the attack on the Russian president, saying he was “morally responsible” for the death of Dawn Sturgess, an innocent bystander who died after being exposed to the chemical weapon after it was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.
Her death came four months after the attempted murder of Mr Skripal, a former spy, along with his daughter, Yulia, and a police officer, Nick Bailey, who were all harmed when members of a Russian GRU military intelligence squad smeared the nerve agent on Mr Skripal’s door handle.
Retired Supreme Court judge Anthony Hughes, who carried out the review into Sturgess’s death, found that the attempted assassination of Mr Skripal “must have been authorised at the highest level, by President Putin”, and that the GRU agents were “acting on instructions” when they carried out the attack.
open image in galleryThe inquiry found that Vladimir Putin was ‘morally responsible’ for Dawn Sturgess’s death (PA)He said: “It is clear that this attack showed considerable determination and was expected to stand as a public demonstration of Russian power.”
After the report was released, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper warned that Putin and his agents represent “an active threat to Britain’s citizens, our security and our prosperity”.
In a statement, she said: “We will not tolerate this brazen and despicable aggression on British soil. That is why we are exposing and sanctioning those carrying out malign acts for Moscow, and ramping up efforts to crush hostile Russian hybrid activity.”
The GRU has now been sanctioned in its entirety by the UK government – with action also taken against 11 people linked to state-sponsored hostile activity – while the Russian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.
The report’s publication comes as hopes fade for a US-brokered peace deal in Ukraine, the illegal invasion of which was launched four years after the novichok attacks.
Former prime minister Theresa May said the report shows that Britain is under “constant threat from Russian espionage”, adding that the government must “continue to stand firm in the face of Russian aggression”.
open image in galleryDawn Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to novichok in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in 2018 (PA)She said: “I always believed that the attack on Sergei Skripal and his daughter was part of a more aggressive positioning by Russia that would have consequences further down the line. Four years later, Putin invaded Ukraine, and we are under constant threat from Russian espionage.
“The Russians released a chemical weapon onto the streets of the UK, recklessly endangering lives and murdering Dawn Sturgess. The Dawn Sturgess Inquiry report shows it is vital that we continue to stand firm in the face of Russian aggression.”
The report concluded that the attempted assassination of Mr Skripal was not “designed simply as revenge against him, but amounted to a public statement ... that Russia will act decisively in what it regards as its own interests”.
It also argued that the Kremlin would have accepted that the “astonishingly reckless” attack would be attributed to Russia.
“Notwithstanding the fact that the attack constituted a significant geopolitical risk, a public demonstration of Russian state power for both international and domestic impact is, I conclude, the most likely analysis of what occurred,” the report said.
open image in gallerySturgess’s family say the report has left them with ‘unanswered questions’ (Sky News)Lord Hughes’s inquiry, which cost £8.3m, avoided major criticism of the British state for its handling of Mr Skripal, arguing that it would not have been reasonable to provide him with an entirely new identity in order to prevent an attack on him.
While Michael Mansfield KC, the barrister for Sturgess’s family, suggested that the Security Service should have created an entirely new identity for Mr Skripal in order to protect him from attack, the inquiry concluded that this would only have been reasonable “if the risk to him of assassination on UK soil stood at a high level, and it did not”.
But Sturgess’s family expressed “real concern” over the lack of recommendations in the report, saying it had left them with a “number of unanswered questions”.
In a statement, they said: “Today’s report does not set out, publicly, how the risks that led to Dawn’s death will be prevented in the future. Adequate risk assessment of Skripal was not done, [and] no protective steps were put in place. That is a serious concern, for us now, and for the future.”
They added: “Today’s report has left us with some answers but also a number of unanswered questions. We have always wanted to ensure that what happened to Dawn will not happen to others; that lessons should be learned; and that meaningful changes should be made.
“The report today contains no recommendations. That is a matter of real concern. There should, there must, be reflection and real change.”
The sanctions announced by the Foreign Office on Thursday target eight cyber military intelligence officers for working for the GRU, which was responsible for cyber operations targeting Ms Skripal with X-agent malware, and, five years later, the attempted murder of her and her father on UK soil.
open image in galleryRussian nationals Alexander Petrov (left) and Ruslan Boshirov are believed to be the two GRU agents who tried to kill the Skripals (Metropolitan Police)A further three GRU officers were sanctioned for orchestrating plots elsewhere in Europe, including plans for a terror attack on Ukrainian supermarkets.
In a statement, Sir Keir Starmer said the findings of the report were a “grave reminder of the Kremlin’s disregard for innocent lives”.
“Dawn’s needless death was a tragedy and will forever be a reminder of Russia’s reckless aggression. My thoughts are with her family and loved ones,” he said.
The inquiry heard that the Skripals fell ill on the afternoon of 4 March 2018 after eating lunch at a branch of Zizzi in Salisbury. They were showing symptoms consistent with either nerve agent or organophosphate poisoning or an opiate overdose.
Paramedics treated Mr Skripal with an anti-opioid drug, which had no effect. Addressing the medical care Sturgess received, Lord Hughes said that there was no treatment that “could in fact have saved her life”.
The inquiry previously heard that 87 people were admitted to A&E after the novichok was discarded in a Nina Ricci perfume bottle.
Russia has previously denied any involvement in the attack on the Skripals.
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