Reactions to the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal

The G7 Foreign Ministers endorsed the UK position that Russia was "highly likely" responsible for the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the United Kingdom, reports Sputnik.

Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in Britain last month along with her father, a former Russian spy, has said she did not wish to take up the offer of assistance from the Russian embassy in London.

Yulia Skripal has been discharged from a British hospital, the BBC reported on Tuesday, just over a month after being poisoned with a nerve agent along with her father Sergei, a former Russian double agent, quoted by Reuters.

The first of a group of 60 US diplomats who have been expelled from Russia in the wake of the poisoned spy row departed from Washington's embassy in Moscow early Thursday, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

''Bulgaria, which has a strong pro-Russian lobby in government, needs more time to decide whether to follow NATO and EU allies in expelling Russian diplomats over a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy'', its deputy prime minister said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in a phone call on Wednesday to work together to counter Russia, the British minister's office said.

"The Chancellor and Prime Minister both agreed on the need to continue to work together to counter increased Russian aggression," the press release read.

(Reuters) - Iceland's leaders will not attend the soccer World Cup in Russia this year as part of an international response to punish the Kremlin for a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy in England that the British government has blamed on Moscow.

European Union leaders united behind British Prime Minister Theresa May on March 22 in blaming Russia for a nerve agent attack in England, and agreed to recall their ambassador to Moscow for consultations.

The European Union has recalled its ambassador from Moscow after leaders on the continent threw their weight behind Theresa May's stance over the Salisbury attack. Several EU member states were poised to announce expulsions of diplomats, in a bid to dismantle Vladimir Putin's spy network.

LONDON — Theresa May will warn EU leaders over dinner in Brussels Thursday that Russian spy networks in Europe are a threat to the whole of the bloc that will last for "years to come."