Poisoned Russian agent Sergei Skripal is getting better fast, hospital says

LONDON – Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal is no longer in critical condition and his health is improving rapidly more than a month since he was poisoned with a nerve agent, the British hospital treating him said on Friday.

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia were found slumped unconscious on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.

Britain said they were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent first developed by the Soviet Union. Russia has denied it had anything to do with the first known use of such a toxin on European soil since World War Two.

"He is responding well to treatment, improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition," Christine Blanshard, Medical Director at Salisbury District Hospital, said in a statement.