Russia-Ukraine conflict: Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich survives ‘poisoning’ in Kyiv

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich survived a suspected chemical weapon poisoning in Kyiv, it’s been revealed.

Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich and two peace negotiators reportedly survived an attempted poisoning just days after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

The Russian oligarch and two Ukrainian diplomats developed suspected poisoning symptoms that caused skin to peel off and the loss of eyesight, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sources familiar with the matter revealed the suspected poisoning as Ukraine and Russia prepared to return to the negotiating table in Turkey.

The suspected poisoning, during negotiations in Kyiv in early March, was blamed on Kremlin hardliners wanting to sabotage the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Mr Abramovich escaped with symptoms including red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and skin peeling off his face and hands – consistent with chemical weapons, the Journal reported.

He also lost his eyesight for several hours before being treated in Turkey, a source added to The Guardian.

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.

— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) March 28, 2022

He has made a full recovery and is no longer in danger. It was unclear how affected the Ukraine negotiators, Crimean Tatar and Rustem Umerov, were. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, who met with Mr Abramovich while in Kyiv, was not affected.

Mr Abramovich had travelled to Kyiv at Ukraine’s invitation to help negotiate an end to the war with Putin, who he had remained close with since his time as governor of the Chukotka region in Russia’s Arctic east.

A source close to Mr Abramovich confirmed to the BBC that he suffered the symptoms but that he would continue with negotiations until the end of the war.

Analysts at investigative news outlet Bellingcat confirmed that Mr Abramovich participated in the negotiators in Kyiv until 10pm on March 3, before the group travelled to Istanbul, via Lviv and Poland, to continue informal negotiations.

Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich. Picture: AFP.

The three men who experienced symptoms consumed only chocolate and water in the hours before symptoms, while a fourth person who consumed similar items was not affected, Bellingcat reported.

Chemical weapons medical experts, a doctor, and a Bellingcat investigator examined the men and “concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon”.

The symptoms were consistent with variants of porphyrin, organophosphates, or bicyclic substances, but a definitive determination was not possible due to a lack of specialised equipment.

“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 added.

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 (@bellingcat) March 28, 2022

Bellingcat investigator Christo Grozev, who was on the team that concluded Russian politician Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent in 2020, said the poisoning “Was not intended to kill”.

“It was just a warning,’ Grozev said.

Zelensky said Sunday that his government had received offers of support from Russian businessmen, including Abramovich, who owns and is seeking to sell Chelsea Football Club amid sanctions on Russian oligarchs.

Zelensky told journalists that the businessmen had said they wanted to “do something” and “help somehow” to de-escalate Russia’s military assault on Ukraine that has left thousands dead.

Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to presidential administration, dismissed the allegation as “speculation,” adding that all Ukrainian negotiators “are working as usual.”

AT LEAST 5000 DEAD IN MARIUPOL

Ukraine says that at least 5000 people have died in the “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis gripping pulverized Mariupol, as fighting raged around Kyiv including in a strategic suburb where defenders claim to have driven out Russian invaders.

Multiple cities in Ukraine remained under crushing Russian bombardment on the eve of new face-to-face peace negotiations Tuesday in Turkey, as Kyiv -- and its allies in the West -- seek to end the month-long war.

In the besieged southern port of Mariupol at least 5000 people have already been buried, according to a senior Ukrainian official who said as many as 10,000 may have died - appearing to confirm the darkest scenarios of devastation in the city.

“The burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling,” Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, told AFP by phone.

Russian attacks near Kyiv cut power to more than 80,000 homes, officials said, underscoring the peril facing the capital despite an apparent retreat in Moscow’s war aims to focus on eastern Ukraine.

“To capture Kyiv is essentially a captured Ukraine, and this is their goal,” warned Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Ganna Malyar, who said Russia was “trying to break through the corridor around Kyiv and block transport routes.”

A wrecked tank is seen as civilians are being evacuated along humanitarian corridors from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol under the control of Russian military and pro-Russian separatists. Picture: Getty Images

UKRAINE RECLAIMS IRPIN, MALA ROGAN

Fierce Ukrainian resistance however reclaimed the strategically vital Kyiv suburb of Irpin from Russian troops, by sweeping the area block-by-block, according to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky.

AFP journalists said heavy shelling continued to be heard on the road leading to Irpin, however, as residents including 86-year-old Olga Molchanova evacuated from the devastated commuter town.

“I just pray to God for salvation. I pray every day for the soldiers who defend us. Let them have courage,” Molchanova cried after reuniting with her daughter Agnesa Brovkina who described hellish conditions in Irpin.

“My mother was deafened by a rocket. All the time, non-stop, shelling. All day and night, bombing, shelling, all of it,” said Brovkina, a 62-year-old office worker.

Kyiv’s forces also Monday recaptured Mala Rogan, a hamlet on the outskirts of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv in the northeast.

“There are Russian corpses all over the place,” a Ukrainian soldier told AFP, saying more than two dozen Russian soldiers had been killed in the fight

“We each carried 50 kilos of materials on our backs, we had Javelins,” said Valery, a sergeant who took part in the operation, referring to the US anti-tank weapons.

The 54-year-old electrical engineer in the Kharkiv metro, a veteran of the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan, enlisted right after Russia invaded on February 24.

“I was expecting they’d hand me a shovel and an old gun, as in Afghanistan, but look,” he said, spreading his arms to show his kit.

“The battle lasted around 10 hours. We caught the Russians by surprise. They were in the basements where they tried to hold out. We gave them a chance to surrender. Too bad for them...,” said Valery, shrugging his shoulders.

Nearly 180 Russian soldiers were in the village altogether, he said.

PEACE TALKS TO BEGIN

The Kremlin says peace talks between Russia and Ukraine may get underway in Turkey on Tuesday, saying it was important that the talks would be held face-to-face despite the limited progress in negotiations so far.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a telephone call on Sunday for Istanbul to host the talks, which the Turkish government hopes will lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Ukraine said it was willing to discuss “neutral status” at the face-to-face talks with Russia. “Our goal is obvious – peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a late-night video message that also set out his negotiating red lines.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaking online at a meeting of the European Council. Picture: Ukrainian presidential press-service

“Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are beyond doubt. Effective security guarantees for our state are mandatory.”

Earlier, Turkey said the talks could begin as early as Monday, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that was unlikely as the negotiators would only be arriving in Turkey on Monday.

Peskov said that no progress had been made on the idea of a potential meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

He also said that the talks had so far failed to yield any substantive progress or breakthroughs.

KREMLIN’S PLAN FOR UKRAINE

The Kremlin is suspected to be pushing for a carve-up of Ukraine in a Korean-style north and south split, all but conceding its plot to take over the whole of the country has failed.

But Ukraine has offered an alternate model to end the war including pledging Ukraine remain permanently neutral, not join NATO and continue to stay nuclear weapon free.

The Ukrainian Central Intelligence Agency chief Brigadier General Kirill Budanov said the Kremlin wanted to impose a “Korea scenario” and create two Ukraine’s with parallel authorities where one pledged loyalty and allegiance to Moscow.

The plan was based on a belief the entire length of the east and south of Ukraine, Ukrainian would want to align to Russia if offered quasi statehood.

Ukrainian servicemen walk inside the destroyed regional headquarters of Kharkiv on March 27, 2022. Picture: AFP

But Russia’s own intelligence analysis failed to understand the depth of feeling against any return to Soviet-era authoritarian politics and economics.

Gen Budanov said such was the strategy, Kremlin was even now trying to convince people in occupied parts of the east to only use the Russian rouble over Ukraine, Ukrainian hryvnia.

But defiance in cities like Mariupol was standing in the way of the strategy.

“The resistance and rallies of our citizens in the occupied territories, counter-attacks by the Armed Forces and gradual liberation significantly complicate the implementation of enemy plans,” he said.

He added Russia now realised it was not in a position to take over the whole of Ukraine nor even capture its capital and would “bargain” at the international level to exchange peace for a “North Korea and South Korea in Ukraine”.

A man stands in front of a house which attacked by Russian forces in the village of Bachtanka near Mykolaiv, a key city on the road to Odessa. Picture: AFP

Britain’s Defence Ministry appeared to agree and noted Russian troops were trying to encircle Ukrainian forces facing the two separatist-held areas in the country’s east that since 2014 has been propped up with Moscow money and military equipment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously dismissed the notion of a formal carve up of his country but said yesterday his government was prepared to consider declaring neutrality and offering security guarantees to Russia if it ended its war. Those guarantees would include keeping Ukraine nuclear-free and if passed in a referendum, an agreement to stay out of NATO. But Russia had to withdraw from Ukraine first.

“We are looking for peace, really, without delay,” he said.

A view of the square which got destroyed as a result of a rocket strike in the area earlier on March 27, 2022 in Byshiv, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

His words came as missile attacks continued on the capital Kyiv and other centres including Lutsk in the country's north west where missiles came in undetected because they were fired at low altitude from Belarus.

Talks toward peace are expected to start again tomorrow in Turkey.

Meanwhile, The Kyiv School of Economics has estimated Russia had so far caused more than $83 billion since its February 24 invasion including destruction or severe damage to 4431 residential buildings, 92 factories/ warehouses, 378 institutions of secondary and higher education, 138 healthcare institutions, 11 shopping malls, 12 airports and seven thermal and or hydro-electric power plants.

Originally published as Russia-Ukraine conflict: Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich survives ‘poisoning’ in Kyiv