A breaking story from The Wall Street Journal and the investigative outlet Bellingcat alleges that officials from Ukraine and Russia may have been poisoned while meeting for negotiations. The meeting took place earlier this month in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv.
The news outlet reported that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and at least two Ukrainian negotiators displayed signs of poisoning following the meeting, including painful tearing in the eyes and peeling skin on the face and hands. All parties are said to have recovered without signs of any long-term complications.
While the report provided a detailed account of the alleged poisoning, a U.S. government official said intelligence points to an environmental reason for the symptoms rather than poisoning.
According to Reuters, Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak also dismissed the poisoning claim, saying, “there is a lot of speculation, various conspiracy theories.” An additional Ukrainian negotiating official, Rustem Umerov, said that people should not trust “unverified information.”
Russian officials have not formally commented on the matter.
While tracing the potential of a poisoning incident, the Bellingcat investigative report found that the three of the alleged victims had only consumed chocolate and water in the time leading up to the appearance of symptoms. One other negotiating team member also consumed the same water and chocolate but reportedly did not experience any poisoning symptoms.
The Russian and Ukrainian officials met once again on Tuesday in hopes of finding a resolution to the ongoing conflict. The two groups of negotiators convened in person in Istanbul, Turkey. According to Ukrainian officials, their goal was to negotiate a ceasefire without yielding any land to the Russians.
