Global Geopolitical Series: Yulia Skripal issues statement via police; asks visa-denied cousin to stop contacting her

Yulia Skripal, who along with his father Sergei Skripal have been at the center of the latest diplomatic  crisis between the United Kingdom and Russia has recovered from the ‘Novichok’ poisoning and has issued a statement via the United Kingdom’s police after there has been a furor over the visa-denial to Skripal relatives residing in Russia by the United Kingdom's government. She specifically asked her cousin, Viktoria, who has appeared extensively on Russian television and requested to see Yulia through diplomatic channels but denied Visa by the UK government not to visit or contact her. Yulia’s father is also on the verge of recovery.

On March 4th, Sergei Skripal, who worked as a double agent for the UK until his capture in 2006 and has been residing in the UK after earning freedom in a spy exchange program, and his daughter Yulia were rushed to a hospital after they were found unconscious at a park in Salisbury. It was later reported that the father and daughter had come into contact with an obscure nerve agent. UK government officials said the Skripals were attacked by "Novichok," a powerful Soviet-era chemical nerve agent used by the military. Though the British government did not provide evidence that linked Russia to the crime but was confident from the beginning there could be no other "reasonable explanation" for the attempted assassination since the nerve agent was first manufactured in the former Soviet Union. Hundreds of Russian diplomats were expelled from NATO allied countries, to which Russia responded in kind.

Here is her full statement issued by the metropolitan police of the United Kingdom,

“I was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital on the 9th April 2018. I was treated there with obvious clinical expertise and with such kindness, that I have found I missed the staff immediately.

I have left my father in their care, and he is still seriously ill. I too am still suffering with the effects of the nerve agent used against us.

I find myself in a totally different life than the ordinary one I left just over a month ago, and I am seeking to come to terms with my prospects, whilst also recovering from this attack on me.

I have specially trained officers available to me, who are helping to take care of me and to explain the investigative processes that are being undertaken. I have access to friends and family, and I have been made aware of my specific contacts at the Russian Embassy who have kindly offered me their assistance in any way they can. At the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services, but, if I change my mind I know how to contact them.

Most importantly, I am safe and feeling better as time goes by, but I am not yet strong enough to give a full interview to the media, as I one day hope to do. Until that time, I want to stress that no one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves. I thank my cousin Viktoria for her concern for us, but ask that she does not visit me or try to contact me for the time being. Her opinions and assertions are not mine and they are not my father's.

For the moment I do not wish to speak to the press or the media, and ask for their understanding and patience whilst I try to come to terms with my current situation."