https://www.wsj.com/articles/roman-abramovich-and-ukrainian-peace
-negotiators-suffer-symptoms-of-suspected-poisoning-11648480493
Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian Peace Negotiators Suffer Suspected Poisoning
By Yaroslav Trofimov and Max Colchester - Updated March 28, 2022 11:56 am ET
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered
symptoms of suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this
month, people familiar with the matter said.
阿布本月初在基輔擔任和平掮客時，和烏克蘭人員一起出現中毒症狀。
Following the meeting in the Ukrainian capital, Mr. Abramovich, who has
shuttled between Moscow, Lviv and other negotiating venues, as well as at
least two senior members of the Ukrainian team developed symptoms that
included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their
faces and hands, the people said.
They blamed the suspected attack on hard-liners in Moscow who they said
wanted to sabotage talks to end the war. A person close to Mr. Abramovich
said it wasn't clear who had targeted the group.
俄羅斯方面當然有重大嫌疑，但阿布這邊的人說不清楚下毒的人是誰。
Mr. Abramovich and the Ukrainian negotiators, who include Crimean Tatar
lawmaker Rustem Umerov, have since improved and their lives aren't in
danger, the people said. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has
met with Mr. Abramovich, wasn't affected, they said. Mr. Zelensky's
spokesman said he had no information about any suspected poisoning.
阿布和烏方的人後來症狀減緩，沒有生命危險。跟阿布見過面的烏克蘭總統澤倫斯基
則沒有受到影響，也不知道下毒的資訊。
Western experts who looked into the incident said it was hard to determine
whether the symptoms were caused by a chemical or biological agent or by
some sort of electromagnetic-radiation attack, the people familiar with
the matter said.
西方專家說很難判斷下毒的方式。
The Kremlin didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the
suspected poisoning.
克林姆林宮沒有立即回應。
The investigation was organized by Christo Grozev, an investigator with
the Bellingcat open-source collective who concluded that a Kremlin team
poisoned Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent
in 2020. Mr. Grozev said that he saw the images of the effects of the
attack on Mr. Abramovich and Ukrainian negotiators, but that a timely
sample collection couldn't be arranged in the western Ukrainian city of
Lviv, through which they were traveling, because these people were in a
hurry to travel to Istanbul.
因為與會人員趕著去伊斯坦堡，沒法即時蒐集樣本，所以調查專家也很難辦。
By the time a German forensic team with the required know-how was able to
perform an examination, too much time had passed for the suspected poison
to be detected, he said. “It was not intended to kill, it was just a
warning,” Mr. Grozev said.
專家覺得這不是蓄意謀殺，只是個警告。
In 2018, Britain blamed Russia's intelligence services for a nerve-agent
attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer who defected
to the United Kingdom, and his daughter Yulia. Both survived, as did a
British police officer hospitalized after contact with the poison. A
British woman later died after accidentally coming into contact with the
nerve agent. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the Skripal
poisoning.
Mr. Abramovich, who has longstanding links to President Vladimir Putin,
became involved in attempts to end the war in Ukraine shortly after Moscow
launched the invasion on Feb. 24, people familiar with the matter said.
His efforts are sometimes in conjunction with and sometimes parallel to a
separate, official, negotiating track between Ukrainian and Russian
representatives, they said. The Kyiv meeting where the suspected poisoning
took place involved Mr. Abramovich, who is one of Russia's wealthiest
men, and members of the official Ukrainian negotiating team.
Mr. Zelensky has asked President Biden not to impose sanctions on Mr.
Abramovich, who owns a minority stake in the steel company Evraz PLC and
has Portuguese citizenship, because he is involved in the negotiations,
according to people familiar with the call. Mr. Abramovich, who also owns
the Chelsea soccer club, has been sanctioned by the U.K. and the European
Union.
Asked about Mr. Abramovich in an interview with independent Russian media
organizations on Sunday, Mr. Zelensky said he wouldn't comment on his
discussions with Mr. Biden. He said Mr. Abramovich was initially a member
of a subcommittee of the Russian negotiating team, and then tried to help
with humanitarian matters, particularly the evacuation of Ukrainian
civilians from the besieged city of Mariupol.
Mr. Abramovich was seen in Belarus in late February as initial, official
talks began between Kyiv and Moscow and has acted as a back channel for
talks with the Kremlin, personally meeting with Mr. Putin on Ukraine,
people familiar with the matter say. His role in the talks varies
regularly and he has tried to engage others, including former German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, those people said.
Despite the suspected poisoning, Mr. Abramovich has decided to remain
involved in the peace talks, a person close to him said. In the past week
he has traveled to Poland and Ukraine and traveled Monday to Istanbul,
this person said. People who have seen him recently say he has dedicated a
lot of time to mediating between the warring parties. Mr. Abramovich's
late mother was from Ukraine.
儘管疑似被下毒，但阿布仍堅持和平掮客的任務，過去一週他到過波蘭和烏克蘭，週
一又到了伊斯坦堡，知情人說他花了很多心力謀求和平。阿布的母親是烏克蘭人。
The talks have failed to gain much traction, as the war has ground to a
stalemate. Russia's offensive has stalled on a number of fronts. And
Ukraine, meanwhile, has lacked the resources to mount a significant
counterattack to regain occupied territory.
A new round of negotiations is set for Tuesday in Turkey, as negotiators
discuss both a potential political settlement to the war and immediate
humanitarian issues, such as the evacuation of civilians from cities under
bombardment and prisoner exchanges.
Mr. Zelensky has indicated that Ukraine is open to compromise, saying it
would be willing to maintain a neutral status if it receives binding
security guarantees from both the West and Moscow. He has ruled out
Moscow's demand to discuss demilitarization of the country. Any agreement
with Russia would have to be endorsed by a popular referendum held after
all Russian forces withdraw to the positions they held before Feb. 24, he
told Russian media on Sunday.
While the Kremlin says it is interested in pursuing a negotiated solution,
presenters on popular talk shows on Russian state TV have said in recent
days that any agreement with Mr. Zelensky would be a humiliation for
Russia and said that Ukraine should be absorbed into the Russian state.