Family of Amesbury Poisoning Victim Requests Speculations About Incident to End

"We would respectfully request that the media allow us the privacy to come to terms with the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We now need time and space to grieve and would also ask that people stop speculating about Dawn and what has happened," the family of the victim said in a statement published by the Metropolitan Police.

On Sunday, the UK Metropolitan Police said that a woman, identified as Dawn Sturgess, had died in a local hospital, one week after being exposed to a toxic substance in Amesbury. The police have launched a murder investigation as a result. On Monday, UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson accused Russia of carrying out the poisoning attack.

READ MORE: UK Police Search for Container Which Allegedly Caused Death of Woman in Amesbury

UK police announced on Thursday that Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley, who was also exposed to the toxin and now in critical condition, were believed to have handled an item allegedly contaminated with the same nerve agent which was used in the March attack on Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, located several miles from Amesbury.

On Monday, the Kremlin said that it regretted Sturgess' death and remained very concerned about the repeated poisoning incidents on British soil.

The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom has said that Moscow would consider the Salisbury and Amesbury incidents as anti-Russia provocations by London if the UK side did not provide Russia with access to the investigation materials and the Skripals.