The Wall Street Journal has an amazing story out of Ukraine that has eerie echoes of a 2018 story from Salisbury, England.

The Salisbury story was the attempted assassination of defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia by Russian operatives. On the afternoon of March 3, 2018, police received an emergency call reporting two persons unconscious on a public bench in Salisbury. The woman’s eyes were open and fixed, and she was foaming at the mouth. They were found to have been victims of nerve agent poisoning. Law enforcement eventually identified three GRU operatives as suspects. Unfortunately, they disappeared and will probably stay that way.

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.

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.

The victims 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.

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.

Now The Guardian has followed it up with more detail.

The billionaire Roman Abramovich and a Ukrainian peace negotiator suffered symptoms consistent with poisoning earlier this month, according a source with direct knowledge of the incident.

Abramovich was taking part in informal peace negotiations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early in March when he began to feel ill, the source told the Guardian. Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov was also part of the negotiation, and the men later left Ukraine for Poland, and then flew to Istanbul, where they received medical treatment.

“It was during his first trip to Kyiv. Roman lost his sight for several hours. In Turkey, they were treated in a clinic, together with Rustem,” said the source.

A site devoted to investigative journalism revealed the backstory in this series of tweets I’ve captured via Threadreaderapp.

Bellingcat can 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. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich.

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. 

Three members of the negotiating team retreated to an apartment in Kyiv later that night and felt initial symptoms – including eye and skin inflammation and piercing pain in the eyes – later that night. The symptoms did not abate until the morning. 

The next day the group of negotiators drove from Kyiv to Lviv on the way to Poland and then Istanbul, to continue informal negotiations with the Russian side. A Bellingcat investigator was asked to help provide an examination by chemical weapons specialists. 

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. 

An alternative less likely hypothesis was use of microwave irradiation. The symptoms gradually subsided in the course of the following week. 

The three men experiencing the symptoms consumed only chocolate and water in the hours before the symptoms appeared. A fourth member of the team who also consumed these did not experience symptoms. 

According to two consulted CW experts and a doctor, the symptoms were most consistent with variants of porphyrin, organophosphates, or bicyclic substances. A definitive determination was not possible due to the absence of specialized laboratory equipment near the victims. 

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 

Bellingcat chose not to report this story earlier due to concern about the safety of the victims. Given the choice of the targeted individuals to speak up, Bellingcat and its investigative partner @the_ins_ru intend to publish an investigation into the presumed poisonings. 

This fits in with the earlier stories reported on Russian intelligence and mercenary death squads targeting Zelensky (Here’s How Volodymyr Zelensky Survived Three Assassination Attempts). The Russians carried out a spate of assassinations in Kiev and Mariupol in 2017, so one must assume the support network used for those hits still exists.

Vladimir Putin’s shredding of international norms of behavior for years. That is why it is vital to our security that he be seen to be defeated in Ukraine unambiguously and the economy of Russia crushed. Putin has shown that he has no desire to live a part of a community of nations; he insists on a place for Russia that literally no one else in Europe insists upon and which it does not merit by economic strength or military prowess. Fortunately, no one died due to this stunt, but the people who executed this mission and those who planned and ordered it will remain in their positions.