Roman Abramovich listens to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during talks in Istanbul
(Picture: AP)Roman Ambramovich, who is under UK sanctions, has been “sincerely” working to end the war in Ukraine, Turkey’s foreign minister has claimed.
Abramovich made a surprise appearance at Ukraine-Russia negotiations in Istanbul on Tuesday, despite being allegedly poisoned at peace talks earlier this month.
Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Chelsea FC owner had been liaising between Kyiv and Moscow since the invasion began on February 24.
The billionaire suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning at peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border on March 3, according to reports.
Two Ukrainian peace negotiators were also allegedly affected, with Abramovich suffering sore eyes and peeling skin.
The billionaire reportedly asked: “Are we dying?” after the alleged poisoning, according to the New York Times.
Christo Grozev, the Bellingcat journalist who broke the story, alongside the Wall Street Journal, has now claimed that experts believe the most likely poisoning method was chloropicrin.
The substance was used by the Germans against the Allies during the First World War.
In an interview in Russian with the YouTube channel Popular Politics, Mr Grozev said experts carried out personal examinations of the alleged poisoning victims, and concluded their symptoms could not be a coincidence.
“What we know [is] three representatives had almost identical symptoms, strong pain in the eyes, red spots around the eye, peeling skin,” he said.
However, he added: “The only minus of that hypothesis was that chloropicrin usually emits quite a strong smell, which means it is quite hard to give it without it being noticed.
“But then one of the specialists said there were developments of this agent – without smell.”
US and Ukrainian officials have downplayed the suggestion that members of the delegation were poisoned.
One unnamed US official told Reuters that intelligence suggested the men’s symptoms were due to "environmental" factors, not poisoning.
An official in the Ukrainian president’s office, Ihor Zhovkva, also later told the BBC that although he hadn’t spoken to Abramovich, members of the Ukrainian delegation were "fine" and one had said the story was "false".
