Experts from the British Porton Down chemical weapons research center have been unable to identify the origin of the nerve agent used to poison former Russian military intelligence (GRU) Colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, said Chief Executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down Gary Aitkenhead, TASS with reference to the Sky News reported.
"We were able to identify it as novichok, to identify that it was military-grade nerve agent," he said. "We have not identified the precise source, but we have provided the scientific info to government who have then used a number of other sources to piece together the conclusions," Aitkenhead added.
He also pointed out that "it is our job to provide the scientific evidence of what this particular nerve agent is, we identified that it is from this particular family and that it is a military-grade, but it is not our job to say where it was manufactured."