UK charges two Russians for attempted murder of Skripals with nerve agent

British prosecutors on Wednesday identified two Russians who they accused of trying to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a military-grade nerve agent in England.

Prosecutors named the two suspects as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, who police said arrived in Britain from Moscow on March 2 at London’s Gatwick airport on an Aeroflot flight and left on March 4.

Britain has blamed Russia for the poisonings and identified the poison as Novichok, a deadly group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack.

Neil Basu, Head of UK Counter Terrorism policing, said the two suspects were travelling under aliases but were around 40 years old and had genuine Russian passports. Basu said traces of Novichok contamination were found in the London hotel room where the two men had stayed.

The U.K. said it wouldn’t seek extradition of the two men, since the Russian constitution will not permit it but that a European Arrest Warrant had been obtained against them, providing for their arrest if they set foot in the European Union.