Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators reportedly had symptoms from a suspected poisoning.
The suspected attack took place earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators experienced symptoms from a suspected poison attack earlier in March, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Abramovich and the Ukrainians experienced symptoms including red eyes and the peeling of skin on their hands and faces after a meeting in Kyiv.
According to the report, their conditions have since improved.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that they blame the attack on Russians who want to derail ongoing peace talks.
It was not immediately clear how the suspected attack took place, or if a chemical, biological, or electromagnetic radiation agent was responsible, the report said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Abramovich has been trying to help Ukraine during Russia’s ongoing war against the country.
Responding to the Journal’s report, the investigative outlet Bellingcat in a series of tweets said that it “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 substances.”
“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,” Bellingcat added.
Three members of the negotiating team experienced symptoms after going back to their hotel that night, including “eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in the eyes,” the tweets said. According to some reports, Abramovich may also have experienced temporary blindness.
The next day the negotiators made their way toward Lviv, in Western Ukraine, and 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 agent,” Bellingcat said.
“The experts said the dosage and type of toxin used was likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage, and was most likely 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.”
Russia has also been accused of poison attacks in the past, including an incident involving the Soviet era nerve agent Novichok that nearly killed top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in August 2020. Navalny is now imprisoned in Russia, on charges widely decried as politically motivated. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of ordering Navalny’s poisoning, though he’s denied this.
Novichok was also used in the attempted assassination of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in the UK in March 2018, which Russia was also accused of orchestrating. Skripal, who survived the poisoning, had previously been convicted in Russia of spying for the UK.
Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who defected, died in London in 2006 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. Litvinenko was a fierce critic of Putin, and accused the Russian leader of ordering his killing before he died.
The European Court of Human Rights last year found the Kremlin responsible for Litvinenko’s assassination. Moscow denied any involvement in his death.
Other critics and opponents of Putin have died violently and under mysterious circumstances, or ended up behind bars like Navalny.
(Yahoo / Wall Street Journal).