UK Novichok allegations backed by world leaders

The US, France, Germany and Canada have agreed with the UK's assessment that Russia's government "almost certainly" approved the Salisbury poisoning.

They have urged Russia to provide full disclosure of its Novichok programme, BBC News reports.

At a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the attack, Russia dismissed evidence presented by the UK as "lies".

The head of GCHQ has said the UK's allies would "reject the Kremlin's brazen determination to undermine the international rules-based order".
In a speech in Washington, Jeremy Fleming said: "The threat from Russia is real. It's active."

He added: "And it will be countered by a strong international partnership of allies. Able to deploy the full range of tools from across our national security apparatus."

Mr Fleming said the intelligence community had supported police in a "painstaking" and "highly complex" investigation into what happened after the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury on 4 March.

The UK named two men, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, believed to be from Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, as the main suspects.

The Kremlin called these accusations "unacceptable".