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Ukraine talks: Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich poisoned - Report
The report was corroborated by open source investigations (OSINT) collective Bellingcat after one of its investigators was asked to help provide an examination by chemical weapons specialists.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report was corroborated by open source investigations (OSINT) collective Bellingcat after one of its investigators was asked to help provide an examination by chemical weapons specialists.
“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,” said a tweet by the group.
The incident, the WSJ and Bellingcat said, was possibly meant as a warning shot instead of an assassination attempt. The Journal quoted the unnamed people as saying the attack was suspected to be the work of hard-liners in Moscow who “wanted to sabotage talks to end the war”.
The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the suspected poisoning, WSJ reported. News agency Reuters later cited an unnamed US official as saying that intelligence suggested the sickening was due to an environmental factor, not poisoning. The person declined to elaborate.
Bellingcat and WSJ gave details of the developments following the meeting. The symptoms began shortly after the three people went back to an apartment in Kyiv, following negotiations that went on till 10pm. “Later that night and felt initial symptoms - including eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in the eyes. The symptoms did not abate until the morning,” a tweet by Bellingcat said.
The three then left for Poland and Istanbul to continue informal negotiations, but continued to experience symptoms and were examined remotely and on-site by chemical weapons experts, who “concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon”.
An alternative, less likely, hypothesis was use of microwave irradiation, Bellingcat added.
The OSINT group has previously investigated chemical attacks by Russian operatives and has identified the exact agents involved.
“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,” a subsequent Bellingcat post said.
Abramovich and the Ukrainian negotiators, including Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov, have since improved and their lives are not in danger, both reported.
A person familiar with the matter confirmed the incident to news agency Reuters and added that Abramovich had not allowed it to stop him working.
The Kremlin has said Abramovich played an early role in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine but the process was now in the hands of the two sides’ negotiating teams.
The OSINT collective gave more details of the incidents following the meeting. “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,” it said in posts from its official account.
According to two chemical weapons experts and a doctor who were involved, 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 group added.
