London, March 28 : Roman Abramovich had suffered a suspected poisoning along with Ukraine peace negotiators earlier this month, Daily Mail reported.
The Chelsea Football Club owner was reportedly poisoned just weeks ago after a meeting in Kiev while he acted as a ‘peacemaker’ in the Russian war in Ukraine, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Following the meeting in Kiev, Abramovich, as well as two senior members of the Ukrainian team, developed symptoms that included red eyes, painful tearing as well as peeling skin on their faces and hands, sources told the newspaper.
Analysts at Bellingcat confirmed that three members of the delegation — including Abramovich — attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on March 3 experienced “symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons”, Daily Mail reported.
Abramovich, another Russian entrepreneur and Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov had been taking part in the negotiations, with the talks lasting until about 10 pm, investigative news site Bellingcat said.
The three members of the delegation left the talks on March 3 to an apartment in Kiev later that night.
While there, they were all suffering from eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in their eyes until the next morning.
Sources told WSJ they blamed the suspected poisoning attack on hard-liners in Moscow who wanted to ruin talks to end the war.(IANS)