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According to sources close to Roman Abramovich, he experienced symptoms of suspected poisoning while attending peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border earlier this month.

The Chelsea FC owner reportedly suffered from sore eyes and peeling skin, but has since recovered. According to reports, two Ukrainian peace negotiators were also harmed.

According to one report, the alleged poisoning was planned by Russian hardliners who wanted to derail the talks.

Shortly after the allegations surfaced, Reuters quoted an unnamed US official as saying that intelligence indicated the men’s symptoms were caused by “environmental” factors rather than poisoning. Later, Ihor Zhovkva, a spokesman for Ukraine’s president, told the BBC that while he hadn’t spoken to Mr Abramovich, members of the Ukrainian delegation were “fine” and one had said the storey was “false.”

However, as BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner points out, it’s not surprising that the US would want to downplay claims that anyone – particularly Russia – used a chemical weapon in Ukraine, as this could lead to retaliatory action that the US is hesitant to take.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Abramovich’s and the Ukrainian negotiators’ conditions have improved since the March 3 incident, which included Ukrainian MP Rustem Umerov. According to a source close to Mr Abramovich, he has recovered and is continuing to negotiate to end the war in Ukraine. The incident sheds light on Mr. Abramovich’s alleged role as a middleman in Ukraine-Russia talks. His exact role is unknown, but a spokesman for the oligarch previously stated that his influence was “limited.”

Mr. Abramovich was sanctioned by the European Union and the United Kingdom earlier this month for alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he denies.

Mr Zelensky, on the other hand, is said to have asked the US to hold off on sanctioning Mr Abramovich because he could help negotiate a peace deal with Moscow.

Mr Abramovich played an early role in peace talks, according to the Kremlin, but the process is now in the hands of the two countries’ negotiating teams.

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In the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a Russian journalist was killed during shelling by Russian forces.

Oksana Baulina had been reporting for investigative website The Insider from Kyiv and the western city of Lviv, the outlet said in a statement. It added that she died while filming damage in the city’s Podil district. Baulina had previously worked for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation before leaving the country.

The foundation was declared illegal and extremist by the authorities last year, forcing many of its employees to flee to other countries. Another person was killed and two others were injured in the shelling, according to reports. Baulina had previously sent several reports from Kyiv and Lviv in western Ukraine.

To the reporter’s family and friends, the publication expressed its “heartfelt condolences.” In a month of war, Baulina is one of five journalists known to have been killed. During shelling of the TV transmission tower in Kyiv in early March, Yevhenii Sakun, a camera operator for Ukrainian TV channel LIVE who also worked for the Spanish news agency EFE, was killed.

Brent Renaud, a 50-year-old American journalist and filmmaker, was shot and killed while filming in the town of Irpin outside of Kyiv two weeks later. Two days later, on the outskirts of Kyiv, two Fox News journalists, cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and Oleksandra Kuvshinova, 24, were killed when their vehicle was hit by incoming fire.

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News Trending War

Three civilians were killed while attempting to flee Irpin, a town just outside Kyiv.

A photographer for the New York Times captured a heartbreaking image of three members of a family of four – a mother and two children – lying dead on the pavement, while Ukrainian soldiers try to save the wounded father’s life.

Due to the graphic nature of the image, we are not publishing it here.

According to the newspaper, the children were a teenage son and an eight-year-old daughter.

The family had fled the fighting, carrying a suitcase and a few backpacks, as well as their small dog.

A mortar attack was launched at them.

Russian forces have been firing mortar shells at evacuating civilians, including children, who were using an already-collapsed bridge.

After a railway track was hit and damaged on Saturday, Ukraine accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting the evacuation routes from Irpin.

In addition to Irpin, heavy fighting has recently erupted in the small towns of Hostomel and Bucha to the northwest of Kyiv.

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