Men wanted by Czech police match Skripal suspects

The Czech police's organised crime unit has issued a public appeal for information on two foreign nationals who visited the Zlin region around the time of the deadly ammunition depot explosion in 2014.

The appeal came as the government announced it was expelling 18 Russian diplomats who had been identified as spies in a case related to the explosion.

The unit said the two men had been using Russian passports and identified them as Alexander Petrov, 41, and Ruslan Boshirov, 43.

It added they had visited the Zlin region between 11 and 16 October 2014 and had also visited the capital, Prague, and another region, in the north-east of the country.

Two people were killed on 16 October 2014, when 50 metric tons of ammunition blew up in the town of Vrbetice in the Zlin region.

Another 13 tons of ammunition exploded in the same depot on 3 December that same year.

The men identified by Czech police matched the two men who were charged in absentia by Britain in 2018 for trying to kill former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, with the Soviet nerve agent Novichok.

Investigative group Bellingcat reported in 2018 that Petrov was actually Alexander Mishkin, a doctor for the GRU (Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate), and Boshirov a decorated Russian agent named Anatoliy Chepiga.

The two later appeared on Russian TV claiming they were sports nutritionists who had simply visited Salisbury to see the cathedral spire.

UK authorities said they were members of the GRU who had smeared Novichok on a door handle belonging to Mr Skripal, himself a former GRU officer.

He and his daughter fell ill but recovered.

However a local woman, Dawn Sturgress, passed away months later after being poisoned by the nerve agent, found in a discarded perfume bottle.