Dec. 4 (UPI) -- A British inquiry into the killing of a woman in a botched Russian nerve agent attack in Salisbury in July 2018 determined Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "morally responsible."
The report of the inquiry found that 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess, a mother of three, stood no chance from the moment she sprayed herself with what she believed was perfume but was actually the deadly nerve agent Novichok in a bottle discarded by two Russian intelligence officers.
Inquiry head Anthony Hughes concluded Sturgess' condition was "unsurvivable from a very early stage," and that he was certain "no medical treatment could in fact have saved her life," despite the fact police initially treated the incident as drug-related.
Hughes said Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov had traveled to Salisbury to attempt to assassinate double agent Sergei Skripal by smearing Novichok on the handle of his front door and "recklessly discarded this bottle in some public or semi-public place," before leaving the city.
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