Personnel in protective gear work on a van in Winterslow, England, March 12, 2018, as investigations continue into the nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Skripal was poisoned in Britain in 2018.

A long-awaiting report into the shocking and deadly novichok poisonings from 2018 has finally been published – and it lays the blame squarely at Vladimir Putin’s feet.

After an £8.3 million inquiry, here’s what you need to know.

What happened in 2018?

A former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were hospitalised after coming into contact with a nerve agent at their home in Salisbury.

The ex-spook had been settled in a suburban cul-de-sac after a previous spy exchange.

While the Skripals survived their near-death encounter, Russian agents inadvertently poisoned more people by casually disposing of the novichok nerve agent, which was stored in a fake perfume bottle.

An unconnected individual, Dawn Sturgess, later died after spraying the same substance over herself while at the home of her boyfriend Charlie Rowley in Amesbury, on June 30, 2018.

It’s thought Rowley gave the bottle to his partner after he found it abandoned.

He too fell ill and went into a coma after coming into contact with the poison, but later recovered.

Two Russian men who were named as suspects that September claimed to have been visiting Salisbury Spire as tourists and were supported by Vladimir Putin who claimed there was “nothing criminal about them”.

The incident was instrumental in souring UK-Russian........

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