Roman Abramovich has been seen attending peace talks in Turkey between delegations from Ukraine and Russia on Tuesday, despite reports that he suffered symptoms from a poisoning attempt at an earlier round of negotiations.
The Russian oligarch was seen sitting in the front row as two teams sat down facing each other at the long table in the Turkish presidential office, footage showed.
Mr Abramovich’s attendance at the talks was confirmed by three anonymous sources with the knowledge to Reuters after he was seen in the videos talking to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He was seen adjusting his headphones to listen to the president’s speech launching the peace negotiations, Turkish and Russian TV visuals showed.
Mr Erdogan is mediating the first face-to-face talks between Ukraine and Russia in more than two weeks for what he called “ concrete results and progress” in deescalating the tensions.
Confirming his presence at the talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Mr Abramovich was not representing Russia or part of Moscow’s official delegation.
It comes after it was reported that Mr Abramovich and some Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv at the start of March.
He developed the symptoms of red eyes and peeling skin on their faces and hands, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal and investigative news outlet Bellingcat.
The Kremlin has said Mr Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club and private investment company Millhouse LLC, took on an early role in the Ukraine peace talks but that the process has now been taken up by negotiating teams.
He is still reported to be interested in mediating despite the apparent poisoning incident in Kyiv.
It was alleged that the poisoning might have been orchestrated by Russian hardliners in an attempt to sabotage the talks.
The Chelsea owner suffered temporary blindness for several hours following the poisoning, but is said to have now fully recovered.
Ukrainian officials have attempted to downplay the poisoning reports.
Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov, who was also one of the negotiators to suffer poisoning, urged people not to trust “unverified information”.
Another negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said “there is a lot of speculation, various conspiracy theories”.
Following the reports, Ukraine’s foreign minister had warned peace negotiators not to eat or drink while participating in talks with their Russian counterparts on Tuesday.
“I advise anyone going for negotiations with the Russian federation not to eat or drink anything and preferably, to avoid touching any surface,” foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview on national television.
Mr Abramovich has been named by the UK as one of the Russian billionaires subject to sanctions designed to punish Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
