Yulia Skripal rejects help from Russian Embassy following her release from hospital

IN HER first public statements since being released from hospital, Yulia Skripal said she is seeking to come to terms with a ‘totally different life’ and deftly rejected assistance from Russia’s embassy.

YULIA Skripal has revealed her nerve agent health battle and says her poisoned spy dad Sergei Skripal is “seriously ill” as she rejects Russia’s help.

In the first public statement issued since her release from hospital on Monday, the 33-year-old spoke of her ex-spy father and reflected on her return to a “totally different” life to the one she’d left behind, The Sun reports.

In a statement issued by the Metropolitan Police on her behalf she thanked Salisbury District Hospital, where she and her father have been dangerously ill since their poisoning on March 4.

RELATED: New breakthrough in Russian spy attack

MORE: Russian spy Sergei Skripal ‘improving rapidly’ after poisoning

Yulia Skripal, the daughter of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, has given her first public statement since her release from hospital.

She said: “I was treated there with obvious clinical expertise and with such kindness, that I have found I missed the staff immediately.

“I have left my father in their care, and he is still seriously ill. I too am still suffering with the effects of the nerve agent used against us.”

Yulia and her father, a Russian ex-spy who had retired in Salisbury, collapsed more than a month ago after being exposed to nerve agents, which the UK holds Russia responsible for.

Countries around the world joined the UK in pulling their diplomats from Russia, which has retaliated by removing its own from those countries in a tit-for-tat battle with no conclusion in sight.

Yulia, who flew to Heathrow to visit her father on March 3, the day before they were both found collapsed in Salisbury, has been caught up in the diplomatic maelstrom.

She said in her statement: “I find myself in a totally different life than the ordinary one I left just over a month ago, and I am seeking to come to terms with my prospects, while also recovering from this attack on me.”

Members of the emergency services affix a tent over the bench where former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found. Picture: AFP

“I have specially trained officers available to me, who are helping to take care of me and to explain the investigative processes that are being undertaken.

“I have access to friends and family, and I have been made aware of my specific contacts at the Russian Embassy who have kindly offered me their assistance in any way they can.

“At the moment I do not wish to avail myself of their services, but, if I change my mind I know how to contact them.

“Most importantly, I am safe and feeling better as time goes by, but I am not yet strong enough to give a full interview to the media, as I one day hope to do.

“Until that time, I want to stress that no-one speaks for me, or for my father, but ourselves.”

Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned by a nerve agent, has been released from the hospital. Picture: Yulia Skripal/Facebook via AP

“I thank my cousin Viktoria for her concern for us, but ask that she does not visit me or try to contact me for the time being. Her opinions and assertions are not mine and they are not my father’s.

“For the moment I do not wish to speak to the press or the media, and ask for their understanding and patience while I try to come to terms with my current situation.”

This story first appeared in The Sun.