Theresa May has welcomed the decision by European Union leaders to wholeheartedly back the UK’s condemnation of Russia over the Salisbury attack, after Brussels recalled its ambassador to Moscow.
Speaking as she departed from an EU summit in Brussels, the prime minister said she was pleased that the 27 other member states had unanimously agreed it was “highly likely Russia is responsible”.
“It is right that we are standing together”, she said. “We have been sharing throughout, sharing on intelligence channels what we can with our colleagues. What is crucial is that there was recognition around the table about the threat that Russia poses. “They recognised and agreed with the UK Government’s assessment”.
A number of member states, including Ireland, are poised to follow the UK’s lead and expel Russian diplomats over the affair.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday accused the UK of trying to make “the crisis with Russia as deep as possible” as it sought the support of the EU.
In London they “are feverishly trying to force allies to take confrontational steps”, he told reporters on a visit to Hanoi, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
During a long dinner in Brussels on Thursday, information was shared from both the UK security services and other member states’ intelligence services to shore up support for the UK.
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, said: “We will now consider in the coming days whether we want to take individual action in relation to Russian diplomats in Ireland.”
The taoiseach, who alongside his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, had proposed that the EU endorse the opinion of the British government on the guilt of Russia, added: “Bearing in mind what the United Kingdom did was to expel 23 diplomats that they believed were not actual diplomats, were agents. So we would have to do an assessment just like they did before that … We will make that decision, I would say, in the early part of next week.”
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