Photo: Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency via Getty
Multiple news accounts have emerged that a billionaire Russian businessman and other members of theongoing peace talks between Ukraine and Russiaare suspected of being poisoned following a meeting last month.
Key details remain unclear in the episode — including the manner of the possible poisoning or consensus on whom would be to blame, whether a pro-war faction in Russia or another group.
“It was not intended to kill, it was just a warning,” one outside experttoldThe Wall Street Journal.
But the incident (as described in theJournal,The GuardianandThe New York Times, citing anonymous sources) fits a pattern of people connected with Russia being poisoned.
The businessman, 55-year-old Roman Abramovich, and Ukrainian politician Rustem Umerov along with one other negotiator initially started to feel the symptoms after the March 3 meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, according to theJournal.
Sources told the paper their symptoms ranged from “constant and painful tearing” to “peeling skin on their faces and hands” and red eyes.
Abramovich, an oligarch who owns London-based Chelsea Football Club, experienced blindness for hours coupled with difficulty eating, sources told theJournal.
Abramovich has reportedly traveled regularly among locations hosting negotiations, including Moscow and Belarus, sinceRussia invaded Ukrainein late February.
The Guardianreported Monday that Abramovich’s condition had improved since he first experienced his symptoms and there was no real way to tell whether he and the two other people were in fact poisoned since they were not able to share samples with toxicologists in a timely manner.
As Abramovich was being examined, however, he asked, “Are we dying?” theTimesreported.
Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency via Getty
TheTimesalso reports that some have questioned Abramovich’s presence at the negotiations, including a meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Abramovich has longstanding ties to the Russian government and hasfaced sanctionsfrom other countries, though his other connections to the West suggest he has wider interests as well.
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace while urging his country to fight back.
Putin, 69, insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy, 44, vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,” he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
