According to sources, Roman Abramovich and Ukraine peace negotiators were poisoned earlier this month, causing their skin to peel off their faces and render them temporarily blind.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Chelsea FC owner was poisoned just weeks ago after a meeting in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv while acting as a “peacemaker” in the Russian war in Ukraine.

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According to sources, Abramovich and two senior members of the Ukrainian team had symptoms such as hot eyes, painful pouring eyes, and peeling skin on their faces and hands after the meeting in Kyiv.

According to a source close to Abramovich, who accepted a Ukrainian plea to assist negotiate an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he also ‘became blind for several hours’ and was treated at a hospital in Turkey.

Three members of the delegation – including Abramovich – attending the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia on March 3 experienced’symptoms compatible with poisoning with chemical weapons,’ according to analysts at the investigative news site Bellingcat.

‘A source with direct information has recently confirmed to me the WSJ/Bellingcat stories that Abramovich suffered signs of poisoning. “Roman lost his sight for several hours” and was treated in Turkey,’ stated Shaun Walker of the Guardian.

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According to Bellingcat, Abramovich and another Russian industrialist and Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov were involved in the conversations, which lasted until around 10 p.m.

The investigative news site stated that it has been aware of the probable poisoning for some time but chose not to make the information public ‘out of concern for the victims’ safety.

The news comes just days after Abramovich was rumored to have traveled to Poland to act as a mediator between Putin and US President Joe Biden, who visited Rzeszow, Poland, just miles from the Ukrainian border last week.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said: ‘there is a lot of speculation, various conspiracy theories’.

Meanwhile, Umerov warned against relying on “unverified information.”

Abramovich’s representative confirmed to the BBC that the oligarch had experienced the symptoms described, but refused to provide any other information.

On the 3rd of March, the three members of the group departed the negotiations for an apartment in Kyiv later that evening.

They were all suffering from eye and skin inflammation as well as searing pain in their eyes until the next morning while they were there. In the hours leading up to the onset of symptoms, the three guys had had only chocolate and water.

A fourth member of the team, who ate the same food and drank the same water, showed no signs of illness.

On the 4th of March, Abramovich, Umerov, and the other negotiator went from Kyiv to Lviv, Ukraine, on their route to Poland, still suffering from symptoms.

They subsequently traveled to Istanbul, where they are thought to have gotten medical attention before continuing their negotiations.

The three men were examined by chemical weapons experts and a Bellingcat investigator, who found that their symptoms were “most likely the effect of purposeful poisoning with an unknown chemical weapon.”

By the end of the next week, Abramovich and the other two negotiators had recovered from their symptoms.

Last week, the Kremlin admitted for the first time that Abramovich was participating in early peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, but spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted on Thursday that the tycoon was no longer a member of the team.

‘He did take part at the initial stage,’ Peskov said . ‘Now the negotiations are between the two teams, the Russians and Ukrainians.’

The dosage and type of toxin used in the March 3 attack was ‘likely insufficient to cause life-threatening damage,’ according to chemical warfare experts, and was instead designed to’scare the victims rather than create permanent damage.’

According to the WSJ, the suspected poisoning attack was carried out by hardliners in Moscow who intended to derail peace talks. Meanwhile, the victims claimed they had no idea who may be interested in the incident.

Christo Grozev, a Bellingcat investigator who was part of the team that decided in 2020 that the Kremlin poisoned Russian leader Alexei Navalny with a nerve toxin, said he had witnessed the effects of the poisoning on Abramovich and the other negotiators.

‘It wasn’t meant to kill anyone; it was merely a warning,’ Grozev explained.

According to reports, the owner of Chelsea FC has been flying between Istanbul, Moscow, and Kyiv to carry communications between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.

When presented with a note from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stating peace terms, the Russian dictator reportedly roared in rage.

After being sanctioned by the UK and EU for his ties to Putin, Abramovich has been attempting to repair his reputation.

His assets in the UK and Europe have been frozen, and he has begun a fire sale of London real estate as well as the Chelsea football club.

His yachts and jets, valued hundreds of millions of pounds, however, remain out of limits as they avoid sanctioned seas and airspace.

Meanwhile, Zelensky is said to have urged with US President Joe Biden to hold off on pursuing sanctions against the oligarch because of his role in the negotiations.

Last Wednesday, Abramovich boarded a private Hawker 800XP jet from Istanbul and flew across the Black Sea to Sochi.

Its flight tracker went dark near Mineralnye Vody, but the plane reappeared later, departing Moscow’s Vnukovo airport and returning to Istanbul.

The businessman flew in to meet Putin and present him with a handwritten message from Zelensky detailing Ukraine’s position on peace terms.

‘Tell him I’ll thrash them,’ the Russian president said the oligarch, according to the Times.

He returned to Istanbul and spoke with Rustem Umerov, a Ukrainian lawmaker who is rumored to be working as Kyiv’s negotiator.

They met in Istanbul’s five-star hotels, which President Recep Tayyip Erdoan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin had arranged.

After flying through Warsaw, Poland, Abramovich and Umerov paid a visit to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in war-torn Kyiv.

Because he is subject to EU penalties, the businessman has been travelling on a Turkish-owned plane.

He is one of at least 20 Turkish oligarchs who straddle the line between Putin’s demands and Western constraints.

Despite the presence of Ukrainian demonstrators, Putin has two of his yachts parked in Bodrum on Turkey’s south coast.

Turkey has not sanctioned Abramovich and appears to have permitted him to participate in war-related negotiations.

According to insiders, he was adamant about ending the war after witnessing the horrors in Ukraine, where his mother Irina was born.

Meanwhile, the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers were meeting in Turkey for another round of talks.

On March 10, Sergey Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba met in Antalya, with Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, presiding over the meeting, which ended in failure.

He also met with Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor, earlier this month to try to reach an agreement with Putin.

According to various sources, they met in one of the Russian capital’s premium hotels, where the former president was staying.

According to German newspaper Bild, the rich oligarch arrived and exited by a side door to avoid being seen.

The meeting is thought to have taken place in the same suite where Schröder’s wife, Soyeon Schröder-Kim, posted an Instagram prayer for peace with the Kremlin.

The conversations lasted’several hours,’ and Schröder is alleged to have met with Putin at the Kremlin later that evening.

No other information was provided, but Reuters said that an insider informed them the oligarch wants to find a solution to end the conflict.

During Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, Abramovich, a Russian–Portuguese–Israeli millionaire, was close to the Kremlin.

He is claimed to have been the first to suggest Putin as a substitute for Yeltsin.

Abramovich served as governor of the Chukchi Autonomous Okrug for eight years during Putin’s presidency.

Following Russia’s war on Ukraine, the United Kingdom slapped sanctions on Abramovich, who has owned Chelsea since 2004, almost 20 years.

The west London team has been put up for sale and is currently being auctioned off.

Chelsea’s £1.5 billion debt has been promised by Abramovich, and the bidding war for the club could see the final price tag reach £3 billion.

After the demise of the Soviet Union, the Russian millionaire built his fortune buying undervalued state assets and now controls billions of pounds worth of assets in the United Kingdom.

Due to his strong friendship with Putin, he has been struck by a slew of sanctions in the UK and EU in the last month, and he has hurried to divest before the asset freeze takes effect.