Roman Abramovich has suffered a suspected poisoning along with Ukraine peace negotiators earlier this month that caused the skin to peel off their faces and temporary blindness, sources said.
A representative for Abramovich confirmed earlier today the oligarch had suffered the reported symptoms but refused to give any further details.
The Chelsea FC owner was allegedly poisoned just weeks ago after a meeting in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv whilst he acted as a ‘peacemaker’ in the Russian war in Ukraine reports the wall street journal.
Following the meeting in Kyiv on March 3, Abramovich as well as two senior members of the Ukrainian team developed symptoms that included red eyes, painful streaming eyes as well as peeling skin on their faces and hands, sources told the newspaper.
Abramovich, who accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also ‘went blind for several hours’ and was treated at a hospital in Turkey, a source told The Guardian.
Analysts at investigative news site Bellingcat confirmed that three members of the delegation – including Abramovich – attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on March 3 experienced ‘symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons’.
Meanwhile, Shaun Walker of the Guardian said: ‘A source with direct knowledge has just confirmed to me the WSJ/Bellingcat reports that Abramovich suffered symptoms of poisoning. ”Roman lost his sight for several hours” and was treated in Turkey, the source said’.
Abramovich, another Russian entrepreneur and Ukrainian MP Rustam Umerov had been taking part in the negotiations, with the talks lasting until about 10pm according to Belling cat.
The investigative news site said it had known about the suspected poisoning for some time but chose not to publicise the information ‘due to concern about the safety of the victims’.
The revelation comes just days after Abramovich reportedly travelled to Poland to act as a negotiator between Putin and US President Joe Biden, who visited the Polish town of Rzeszow mere miles from the Ukrainian border last week.
Asked about the suspected poisoning, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak only said: ‘there is a lot of speculation, various conspiracy theories’.
Umerov meanwhile urged people not to trust ‘unverified information’.
Roman Abramovich suffered a suspected poisoning on March 3 after attending peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Kyiv (Abramovich pictured 2015)
Roman Abramovich has suffered a suspected poisoning along with Ukraine peace negotiators earlier this month. Pictured: Abramovich sits in a VIP lounge before a jet linked to him took off for Istanbul from Ben Gurion international airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, Israel, on March 14
Abramovich, another Russian entrepreneur and Ukrainian MP Rustam Umerov (pictured) had been taking part in the negotiations, with the talks lasting until about 10 pm, investigative news site Bellingcat said.
The three members of the delegation left the talks on 3 March to an apartment in Kyiv later that night.
Whilst there, they were all suffering from eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in their eyes until the next morning. The three men had consumed only chocolate and water in the hours before the symptoms appeared.
A fourth member of the team who also consumed the same food and water did not experience symptoms.
The next day – on 4 March – Abramovich, Umerov and the other negotiator drove from Kyiv to the Ukrainian city of Lviv whilst on their way to Poland, still experiencing symptoms.
They then moved on to Istanbul, where they are believed to have received treatment before continuing negotiations.
Chemical weapons specialists and a Bellingcat investigator carried out examinations of the three men and concluded the symptoms are ‘most likely the result of intentional poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon’.
The symptoms experienced by Abramovich and the two other negotiators subsided by the end of the following week.
The Kremlin acknowledged for the first time last week that Abramovich was officially involved in early peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, but spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted on Thursday the oligarch was no longer part of the negotiation team.
‘He did take part at the initial stage,’ Peskov said Thursday. ‘Now the negotiations are between the two teams, the Russians and Ukrainians.’
Chemical weapon experts said the dosage and type of toxic used in the March 3 attack was ‘likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage’ and instead intended ‘to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage’.
Sources told WSJ they blamed the suspected poisoning attack on hard-liners in Moscow who wanted to ruin talks to end the war. The victims meanwhile said they were not aware of who would have an interest in the attack.
Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev, who was part of the team that concluded the Kremlin had poisoned Russian politician Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent in 2020, said he had seen the effects of the poisoning on Abramovich and the other negotiators.
‘It was not intended to kill, it was just a warning,’ Grozev said.
Roman Abramovich (left) and producer Alexander Rodnyanski (right) attend a RuArts Foundation cocktail party in Sochi, Russia, in 2017
The Chelsea FC owner has reportedly been jetting between Istanbul, Moscow and Kyiv to relay messages between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.
But when handed a note from the Ukrainian president outlining peace terms, the Russian despot reportedly erupted with fury.
Abramovich has been trying to rescue his reputation after being slapped with sanctions by the UK and EU over his closeness to Putin.
His assets have been frozen across Britain and the Continent and he started a fire sale of London property as well as Chelsea football club.
But his yachts and jets, which are worth hundreds of millions of pounds, remain out of bounds as they dodge sanctioned waters and airspace.
Meanwhile Zelensky reportedly pleaded with President Joe Biden for the US to hold off bringing measures against the oligarch due to his role in negotiations.
Abramovich left Ataturk airport in Istanbul on a private Hawker 800XP jet last Wednesday, heaving across the Black Sea towards Sochi.
Its flight tracker went dark near the city of Mineralnye Vody, with the plane later popping up leaving Vnukovo airport in Moscow and returning to the Turkish capital.
The oligarch had flown in to meet Putin and hand him a handwritten note by Zelensky outlining Ukraine’s peace terms position.
According to the times, the Russian president said to the oligarch: ‘Tell him I will thrash them.’
He returned to Istanbul and linked up with Ukrainian politician Rustem Umerov, who is said to be acting as Kyiv’s negotiator.
They met at five-star hotels in the Turkish capital, having been set up by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.
Abramovich and Umerov have visited the Ukrainian President in war-torn Kyiv after travelling on private jets routed through Warsaw, Poland.
The businessman has been flying on one owned by a Turkish firm due to his being under EU sanctions.
He is one of at least 20 oligarchs in Turkey as they toe the line between Putin and Western restrictions.
He has two of his yachts moored in Bodrum on the south west coast despite the presence of Ukrainian protesters.
Turkey has not sanctioned Abramovich and appears to have allowed him to help in the negotiations surrounding the war.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.