Reports that Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian peace negotiators were poisoned are “very credible,” a Cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain was seeking to discover exactly what happened in the incident which is said to have left the three suffering from eye and skin symptoms.
“We have seen those very credible reports,” the former Foreign Secretary told Sky News.
“We don’t know a huge amount about the contextual detail to it.
“But it’s very worrying and we are looking to clarify the situation with our allies.”
It comes after Western officials on Tuesday said Mr Abramovich was “helping on the diplomatic track” and so the alleged poisoning attack on him was even more “abhorent”.
The evidence of the reported incident against the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC was still “sketchy” so it was too early to say exactly what had happened, said one official.
But he added: “They are obviously extremely concerning allegations.
“The Russian system has form in terms of utilising chemical weapons.
“We would not want to see anything like that occuring in any form, anywhere to anyone.
“Such things are abhorent.
“To the extent that he is helping on the diplomatic track more so.”
The comments came hours after Mr Abramovich was present at face-to-face talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul - the first in two weeks between the two countries.
Mr Abramovich, a long-standing ally of Mr Putin, is playing an unspecified mediating role at the summit in Istanbul.
Mystery over Mr Abramovich’s role in the negotiations has deepened amid reports that he may have been poisoned during an earlier round of talks.
The news outlet Bellingcat reported on Monday that Mr Abramovich and two Ukrainian delegates suffered eye pain and skin irritation consistent with chemical weapons poisoning after attending peace talks on March 3.
The UK Government said the allegations were “very concerning”, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reports “do not correspond to reality”.
Mr Peskov said Mr Abramovich has been serving as an unofficial mediator approved by both Russia and Ukraine.
Ahead of the talks, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and was open to compromise over the contested eastern region of Donbas - comments that might lend momentum to negotiations.
Read More
However, even as the negotiators assembled, Russian forces hit an oil depot in western Ukraine and demolished a government building in the south, causing several deaths.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the two sides had a “historic responsibility” to stop the fighting.
“We believe that there will be no losers in a just peace. Prolonging the conflict is not in anyone’s interest,” Mr Erdogan said, as he greeted the two delegations.
