Abramovich was secretly treated in Ankara after getting poisoned at peace talks, says Turkish journo

Duvar English

Turkish journalist Kübra Par has said that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich was treated in an Ankara hospital after reports surfaced that he suffered from symptoms of a “suspected chemical weapons attack” following peace talks with Ukrainian negotiators in Kyiv in early March.

Abramovich played a part in initial negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which have been at war since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in late February. 

Earlier this week, reports suggested that Abramovich and at least two senior negotiators on the Ukrainian side were on the receiving end of a suspected poisoning after meeting in Kyiv on March 3.

The Kremlin on the other dismissed these reports, saying they were untrue and part of an "information war".

Turkish journalist Par wrote in her daily Habertük column that she asked about these reports to a senior official who reportedly confirmed the incident.

“It was the first weeks of the war, the first days of March. Abramovich and Rustem Umerov [Ukranian deputy] went to Kyiv to talk with [Ukranian President Volodymyr] Zelensky. After going through dangerous paths on which bombs were exploding, they met with the Ukrainian President,” Par wrote, basing this information on her conversation with the anonymous senior official.

“As they were planning to go back to Turkey, a horrible incident happened to them. A gas bomb exploded in front of the house they were staying, and they got poisoned. Their eyes got burned; they experienced vision loss and landed in Ankara in that situation. They got treated at the Ankara City Hospital in the middle of the night. They are not still sure if the attack was a coincidence or sabotage,” she wrote.

Abramovich also appeared at peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul earlier this week.