Russia has called for urgent UN Security Council talks later Thursday after it lost its bid at the global chemical weapons watchdog to launch a joint probe with Britain into the spy poisoning scandal.

London has said it is “highly likely” Moscow was behind the March 4 attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

But the Kremlin has vehemently denied any involvement in the poisoning which Britain says was carried out with a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union.