US European Command head: ‘Highly likely’ Russia was involved in UK chemical attack

The head of U.S. European Command said Thursday that the military believes that “it’s highly likely” that Russia was involved in the chemical weapons attack in the United Kingdom.

Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who is also the supreme allied commander of NATO, said the United States stands “by our ally and we support their efforts to fully determine who the responsible parties were and hold them accountable” in the use of a nerve agent against an ex-Russian spy and his daughter.

“It represents Russia’s consistent disregard for international rules and norms,” Scaparrotti told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

The U.S., the U.K., Germany and France issued a joint statement accusing Russia of using a military-grade nerve agent to carry out the March 4 attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

The Skripals remain in the hospital in critical condition. 

NATO officials have said that they stand by the U.K., which on Wednesday expelled 23 Russian diplomats believed to be spies. {mosads}

The State Department also released a statement Wednesday that said the attempted poisoning “further demonstrates the reckless and irresponsible conduct of its government.”

Russia has denied any involvement in the poisonings.

President Trump said Thursday that it “certainly looks” as if Moscow was behind the attack but has not condemned or criticized the country for it.

Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (Wash.) slammed Trump for his reluctance to point to Moscow and said the United States needs “an administration that sends a much clearer message on Russia.”

“Our own president was like, ‘Ahh it could have been [Russia that committed nerve agent attack], we don’t know, might have been somebody else,’” Smith said.

“The president needs to speak clearly and forcefully against these Russian actions and stop acting like maybe they didn’t happen. I think it really undermines our ability to confront what Russia is doing on all fronts,” he added.

Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (Texas), meanwhile, said that “whether it’s this incident or cyberattacks or Putin’s boasting about new nuclear weapons, I think it’s really critical for the alliance to stand together and push back against this whole range of activity. That’s the only way for us to counter it.”

Scaparrotti said that the United States must address Russian activity “with a whole of government response and sanctions will be an appropriate part of that.”