Roman Abramovich ‘poisoned during Kyiv meeting with peace negotiators’

The Chelsea owner is suspected to have been poisoned along with Ukrainian officials (Picture: Getty Images)

The Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was poisoned along with Ukrainian negotiators, it has been claimed.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Vladimir Putin ally and Chelsea FC owner was hit by symptoms after a suspected poisoning at a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month.

Abramovich, and two senior Ukrainian officials, are said to have developed peeling skin on their faces and hands, red eyes, and constant and painful tearing, the paper reported.

Quoting ‘people familiar with the matter’, it added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has met with Abramovich, was not been affected.

The lives of the Chelsea owner – who has been sanctioned by the UK government – and two male peace negotiators are not thought to be in danger from the apparent poisoning, blamed on an ‘unidentified chemical weapon’.

The incident is likely to raise serious safety questions about the continuation of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and President Zelensky’s involvement.

Experts believe the suspected attack was intended to scare its victims, rather than cause life-threatening damage.

Widespread reports have previously suggested Russian forces are attempting to assassinate Zelensky, but it is unclear who the target of the alleged poisoning was.

Abramovich has previously passed a handwritten note from Zelensky to Putin and is widely believed to be acting as a go-between for the two leaders.

Russia has been widely blamed for a series of poisonings around the world, including a Novichok incident in Salisbury, the death of Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko and near fatal poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

The investigative media group Bellingcat said the latest incident took place overnight from March 3 to 4, with three people experiencing ‘symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons’, including the Russian oligarch turned negotiator Abramovich.

That was ten days before he was spotted waiting for a private jet at an Israeli airport on Monday, March 14.

‘Abramovich, along with another Russian entrepreneur, had taken part in the negotiations alongside Ukraine’s MP Rustem Umerov’, Bellingcat tweeted.

Abramovich at an Israeli airport on March 14 – ten days after the incident (Picture: Reuters)

Bellingcat can confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich. https://t.co/DJaZ4CoL8J — Bellingcat (@bellingcat) March 28, 2022

The site said the three men had only consumed water and chocolate – while another man who ate and drank the same things did not experience symptoms.

It continued: ‘The negotiation round on the afternoon of 3 March took place on Ukrainian territory, and lasted until about 10 pm.

‘Three members of the negotiating team retreated to an apartment in Kyiv later that night and felt initial symptoms – including eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in the eyes – later that night.

‘The symptoms did not abate until the morning.’

President Zelensky’s spokesman said he had no information about any suspected poisoning, according to the WSJ.

Mum on school run admits using car to try to move Insulate Britain protester

It cited western experts suggesting it was difficult to confirm if the symptoms were caused by a chemical or biological agent or by an electromagnetic-radiation attack.

Bellingcat claimed the most likely cause of the symptoms was an ‘international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon’, adding that ‘microwave irradiation’ was another possible theory.

It cited two chemical weapons experts and a doctor suggesting the symptoms were ‘most consistent with variants of porphyrin, organophosphates, or bicyclic substances’.

‘The experts said the dosage and type of toxin used was likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage, and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage’, Bellingcat tweeted.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that Abramovich had not allowed it to stop him working.

The Kremlin has said the oligarch played an early role in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine but that the process was now in the hands of the two sides’ negotiating teams.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE : Ukraine-Russia peace talks: What does neutral status mean?

FM-101 on March 28th, 2022 at 15:35 UTC »

Reddit headline: "Roman Abramovich poisoned during Kyiv meeting with peace negotiators"

The actual article: "Roman Abramovich was poisoned along with Ukrainian negotiators"

QuirkyQuarQ on March 28th, 2022 at 15:31 UTC »

Full text of WSJ exclusive on suspected Abramovich poisoning:

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said.

Following the meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Mr. Abramovich, who has shuttled among Moscow, Lviv and other negotiating venues, as well as at least two senior members of the Ukrainian team developed symptoms that included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands, the people said. Mr. Abramovich was blinded for a few hours, according to a person familiar with the matter.

They blamed the suspected attack on hard-liners in Moscow who they said wanted to sabotage talks to end the war. A person close to Mr. Abramovich said it wasn’t clear who had targeted the group.

Mr. Abramovich and the Ukrainian negotiators, who include Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov, have since improved and their lives aren’t in danger, the people said. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has met with Mr. Abramovich, wasn’t affected, they said. Mr. Zelensky’s spokesman said he had no information about any suspected poisoning.

Western experts who looked into the incident said it was hard to determine whether the symptoms were caused by a chemical or biological agent or by some sort of electromagnetic-radiation attack, according to the people familiar.

The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the suspected poisoning.

The investigation was organized by Christo Grozev, an investigator with the Bellingcat open-source collective who concluded that a Kremlin team poisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent in 2020. Mr. Grozev said he saw the images of the effects of the attack on Mr. Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators. But he added that examinations of the affected individuals couldn’t be arranged in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, through which they were traveling, because these people were in a hurry to get to Istanbul.

Too much time had passed for the suspected poison to be detected by the time a German forensic team was able to perform an examination, he said. “It was not intended to kill, it was just a warning,” Mr. Grozev said.

Despite the suspected poisoning, Mr. Abramovich has decided to remain involved in the peace talks, a person close to him said. In the past week he has traveled to Poland and Ukraine and traveled Monday to Istanbul, this person said. People who have seen him recently say he has dedicated a lot of time to mediating between the warring parties. Mr. Abramovich’s late mother was from Ukraine.

^ Edit: WSJ article revised and expanded at 2:22 PM ET. General background on Abramovich and Ukraine-Russia negotiations omitted

For more details, here's Bellingcat's blow-by-blow account:

Bellingcat can confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich.

Abramovich, along with another Russian entrepreneur, had taken part in the negotiations alongside Ukraine’s MP Rustem Umerov. The negotiation round on the afternoon of 3 March took place on Ukrainian territory, and lasted until about 10 pm.

Three members of the negotiating team retreated to an apartment in Kyiv later that night and felt initial symptoms - including eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in the eyes - later that night. The symptoms did not abate until the morning.

The next day the group of negotiators drove from Kyiv to Lviv on the way to Poland and then Istanbul, to continue informal negotiations with the Russian side. A Bellingcat investigator was asked to help provide an examination by chemical weapons specialists.

Based on remote and on-site examinations, the experts concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of intentional poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon.

An alternative less likely hypothesis was use of microwave irradiation. The symptoms gradually subsided in the course of the following week.

The three men experiencing the symptoms consumed only chocolate and water in the hours before the symptoms appeared. A fourth member of the team who also consumed these did not experience symptoms.

According to two consulted CW experts and a doctor, the symptoms were most consistent with variants of porphyrin, organophosphates, or bicyclic substances. A definitive determination was not possible due to the absence of specialized laboratory equipment near the victims.

The experts said the dosage and type of toxin used was likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage, and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage. The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack.

Bellingcat chose not to report this story earlier due to concern about the safety of the victims. Given the choice of the targeted individuals to speak up, Bellingcat and its investigative partner @the_ins_ru intend to publish an investigation into the presumed poisonings.

[source]

Visionbuilder on March 28th, 2022 at 15:27 UTC »

Wtf... do these morons have only 2 plays, poison or jumping out of high buildings with a couple of bullets in your head??