Russia’s ambassador to London said he had received a diplomatic note informing him that Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are in a critical condition, but that Britain was “hiding” further details, Yakovenko told the Russian agency the information was “not enough” for Russia, Reuters  reported.

“The British keep hiding the medical assessment from us, we do not have access to the patients, we do not have a chance to talk to the doctors,” it quoted the ambassador as saying.

“No one has even published the photo (of the Skripals). They may be alive, maybe not, maybe nothing happened at all.”

“We are expected to take everything on trust, and that is inadmissible,” RIA quoted him as saying.

Relations between the two countries have crashed to a post-Cold War low over an attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy for the West, and his daughter Yulia in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4.