EU leaders agree Russia ‘highly likely’ behind UK spy attack: Tusk

EU leaders agreed Thursday with Britain’s assessment that Moscow was “highly likely” responsible for the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy, the bloc’s president Donald Tusk said.

The 28 leaders unanimously backed a statement at a summit in Brussels saying that Russian involvement was the “only plausible explanation” for the nerve agent attack in the southwestern English city of Salisbury.

The show of solidarity came after British Prime Minister Theresa May personally appealed to her colleagues and warned that Russia posed a long-term threat to world security.

“#EUCO (European Council) agrees with UK government that highly likely Russia is responsible for #SalisburyAttack and that there is no other plausible explanation,” Tusk tweeted.

The statement was significantly tougher than one endorsed by the bloc’s 28 foreign ministers on Monday, which said only that the countries took Britain’s assessment “extremely seriously” and stopped short of blaming Russia.