Roman Abramovich
Photo: EPA/UPG
Ukrainian authorities passed informal messages to the Kremlin through Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
The Head of the Ukrainian Delegation at the negotiations with Russia, MP Davyd Arakhamiya, announced this information on the national telethon.
"In fact, to be honest, (Abramovych plays the role - LB.ua) is very positive. But I do not understand why he began to play a public role," said Arakhamiya. "From the very beginning, he had a specific role - backchannel. An additional informal channel of communication that helps to say difficult things in ordinary human language, not diplomatic; it helps to say something they cannot say officially. Then, thanks to the international media, this hidden channel became known worldwide."
According to the member of the Parliament, Abramovich is trying to represent himself as a neutral party. "Although we do not see him as a neutral party. But, of course, he is more neutral than the official side of the negotiations," he added.
The member of the Ukrainian delegation, Mykhailo Podoliak, called Abramovich "an extremely effective mediator between delegations." "He moderates the process so that there is no misunderstanding while receiving the information when the parties say something and the other party misunderstands something," he said.
At the beginning of March, the US Treasury Department developed a series of sanctions against Abramovych. Still, at the request of the White House National Security Council, they were not announced. The Wall Street Journal claims that during a telephone conversation, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, advised US President Joseph Biden to wait with sanctions against the oligarch as he could "be an important mediator in negotiations with russia."