Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators were targeted in a suspected poison attack, WSJ reports

• Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators had symptoms from a suspected poisoning, a report said.
• The suspected attack took place earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators experienced symptoms from a suspected poison attack earlier in March, people told The Wall Street Journal.

People told the Journal that Abramovich and the Ukrainians experienced symptoms such as red eyes and the peeling of skin on their hands and faces after a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The report said their conditions had since improved.

People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that they blamed the attack on Russians who wanted to derail ongoing peace talks.

It was not immediately clear how the suspected attack took place, or whether a chemical, biological, or electromagnetic radiation agent was responsible, the report said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Abramovich had been trying to help Ukraine during Russia's ongoing war against the country.

Responding to the Journal's report, the investigative outlet Bellingcat said in a series of tweets that it could "confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons."

"Abramovich, along with another Russian entrepreneur, had taken part in the negotiations alongside Ukraine's MP Rustem Umerov. The negotiation round on the afternoon of 3 March took place on Ukrainian territory, and lasted until about 10 pm," Bellingcat added.

Three members of the negotiating team experienced symptoms after going back to their hotel that night, including "eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in the eyes," the tweets said.

The next day, the negotiators made their way toward Lviv, in western Ukraine, and a Bellingcat investigator was asked to help provide an examination by chemical-weapons specialists, Bellingcat said.

"Based on remote and on-site examinations, the experts concluded that the symptoms are most likely the result of international poisoning with an undefined chemical weapon," Bellingcat said. "The experts said the dosage and type of toxin used was likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage, and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage. The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack."

Russia has been accused of poison attacks in the past, including in an incident involving the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok that almost killed Alexei Navalny, a top Kremlin critic, in August 2020. Navalny is now imprisoned in Russia on charges widely decried as politically motivated. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of ordering Navalny's poisoning, though he's denied this.

Novichok was also used in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, in the UK in March 2018, which Russia was also accused of orchestrating. Skripal, who survived the poisoning, had previously been convicted in Russia of spying for the UK.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who defected, died in London in 2006 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. Litvinenko was a fierce critic of Putin, and he accused the Russian leader of ordering his killing before he died. The European Court of Human Rights last year found the Kremlin responsible for Litvinenko's assassination. Moscow denied any involvement in his death.

Other critics and opponents of Putin have died violently and under mysterious circumstances, or they've ended up behind bars like Navalny.