On Thursday, the U.K. imposed sanctions on Russia’s intelligence agency and called in the Russian ambassador after an investigation determined that President Vladimir Putin held “moral responsibility” for the death of a British woman due to a nerve agent attack in 2018.

Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, passed away after accidentally spraying herself with what she believed was a discarded bottle of Nina Ricci perfume, which unfortunately contained the lethal nerve agent Novichok.

This bottle had been left in Salisbury, a city in southwest England, following an assassination attempt on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in March 2018, blamed on two men believed to be Russian agents.

The inquiry concluded that the attempt on Skripal’s life “must have been sanctioned at the highest level, by President Putin,” and stated that the Russian president carries “moral responsibility” for Sturgess’s death, which occurred four months later.

The report emphasized that the attack demonstrated significant resolve and was intended as a public assertion of Russian might.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer commented to the press on Thursday, “This report is unequivocal: the moral accountability lies with Putin.”

He added that this provides further proof of the alarming and reckless hostile actions occurring on U.K. territory.

In light of the report, London announced the summoning of the Russian ambassador.

The U.K. also sanctioned the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency held accountable for the attack, in its entirety, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, expressed to RIA Novosti that Russia “does not acknowledge illegitimate sanctions established under fabricated justifications… and retains the right to respond.”

The attack on Skripal prompted the largest expulsion of diplomats between Western nations and Russia to that point, as well as a limited set of sanctions from the West.

This assassination attempt was part of a series of espionage-related incidents that have strained U.K.-Russian relations.

A previous British investigation concluded in 2016 that Putin “probably approved” the assassination of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, who had been a vocal opponent of the Kremlin and was killed using radioactive polonium.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were discovered unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March 2018 after Novichok was applied to Skripal’s door handle.

Both of them survived after extensive medical treatment and are currently living under protection.

The report indicates that the Novichok-containing bottle was brought to Salisbury by two suspects, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov—believed to be GRU agents.

“The actions of Petrov and Boshirov, their superiors at the GRU, as well as those who authorized the mission, extending up to President Putin, were astonishingly reckless,” stated the inquiry’s chair, former senior judge Anthony Hughes.

“They alone bear moral responsibility for Dawn’s death,” Hughes remarked, asserting that Sturgess was “an entirely innocent victim of the despicable and cynical actions of others.”

The public inquiry into Sturgess’s demise commenced last year, revealing that the perfume bottle contained sufficient Novichok to potentially harm “thousands” of individuals.

The report indicated that the possibility of harming others beyond the intended target, Sergei Skripal, was entirely predictable.

While there were some “failings” in managing Skripal’s security as a former double agent, the report stated that it was not “unreasonable” for British intelligence to have assessed that there was no significant risk of an assassination attempt.

Michael Mansfield, the lawyer for Sturgess’s family, expressed their dissatisfaction with the report, as it left many questions concerning the preventability of the attack “unanswered.”

In a statement to the inquiry, Skripal asserted his belief that the attack was ordered by Putin, “based on my years of experience and my analysis of the continuous degradation of Russia.”

Relations between London and Moscow remain severely strained due to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.