LONDON -- Britain sanctioned Russia's GRU military intelligence agency and summoned Moscow's ambassador on Thursday after an inquiry concluded that President Vladimir Putin was responsible for a nerve agent attack on British soil in 2018.

The government said that the GRU was being sanctioned for "reckless" acts including the attack in the city of Salisbury that targeted Sergei Skripal, a former GRU officer who was imprisoned in Russia in 2006 for spying for Britain. He was released as part of a 2010 spy swap and settled in the U.K.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal became seriously ill in March 2018 after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which had been smeared on the handle of the ex-spy's front door. A police officer, Nick Bailey, also was sickened. All three survived.

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