"This latest action by Russia fits into a pattern of behavior in which Russia disregards the international rules-based order, undermines the sovereignty and security of countries worldwide and attempts to subvert and discredit Western democratic institutions and processes," the statement reads. "The United States is working together with our allies and partners to ensure that this kind of abhorrent attack does not happen again."
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) March 14, 2018
The White House statement comes hours after Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya deemed the UK's allegations that Russia was responsible "completely unacceptable" before demanding to see evidence backing up their claims.
"The Russian Federation thinks it is completely unacceptable to launch unjustified accusations as contained in the letter from [UK Prime Minister] Theresa May dated 13 March to the secretary-general of the United Nations," Nebenzya said during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. "We demand that material proof be provided of the allegedly found Russian trace in this high-resonance event. Without this, stating that there is incontrovertible truth is not something that we can take into account."
"We have nothing to fear, nothing to hide," Nebenzya later told officials.
On March 4, 66-year-old Sergei Skripal, a former double agent spying for the UK in the Russian military, was poisoned in Salisbury, England, along with his daughter, Yulia. A total of 21 people were taken to a nearby hospital following the incident, which the UK has said was a targeted poisoning with the Russian-made nerve agent Novichok. In response to the attack, May ordered 23 Russian diplomats expelled from the county on Wednesday, just two days after formally accusing Russia of having poisoned Skripal.
Skripal had been living in the UK since a 2010 US spy trade with Russia released him from imprisonment there.
