Who sent Abramovich to Kyiv? Everything known about the secret visit

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s visit to Kyiv in May 2026 has become one of the most mysterious diplomatic episodes of recent months. The trip was not officially announced, its details were kept confidential, and conflicting accounts have emerged over who initiated the meeting and what mandate, if any, Abramovich carried.

It is known that Abramovich met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and discussed the possibility of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. The businessman was subsequently expected to convey Kyiv’s position to Russian President Vladimir Putin, News.Az reports, citing Gordonua.com.

Putin was the first to publicly reveal the existence of the visit. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 5, he said that approximately three weeks earlier, a representative of Russian business circles had contacted him and reported that he had been invited to Kyiv.

According to the Russian president, the businessman had not received an official mandate from the Kremlin and was acting on his own initiative. Putin said he had merely allowed him to travel to the Ukrainian capital, stressing that he could not formally appoint a private businessman as a negotiator.

Putin did not initially identify the businessman. However, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko, a member of the European Solidarity parliamentary faction, later said that the person in question was Roman Abramovich. The information was subsequently reported by the Financial Times and confirmed by Zelenskyy.

According to available reports, the meeting took place on May 21. Putin later said that Abramovich had conveyed Zelenskyy’s request for a personal meeting. The Russian president stated that he was not opposed to high-level contacts in principle, but did not currently see sufficient grounds for holding such a summit.

Zelenskyy presented his account of the meeting on June 7 in an interview with Sky News. According to the Ukrainian president, Abramovich arrived in Kyiv carrying a message intended personally for him and sought to determine what steps Ukraine might be prepared to take to launch a negotiating process.

Zelenskyy said Abramovich had asked for the meeting to remain confidential. However, after Putin publicly disclosed that he had been contacted by an unnamed businessman, the existence of the unofficial diplomatic channel became known.

Judging by Zelenskyy’s statements, the central issue discussed during the meeting was the possible framework for ending the war. The Ukrainian president told Abramovich that Kyiv would not agree to withdraw its forces from the Donbas or legally renounce Ukrainian territories.

At the same time, Zelenskyy confirmed that he was prepared to meet Putin directly. According to him, such talks could take place in almost any country except Russia and Belarus. US President Donald Trump and representatives of European countries could also potentially participate.

Zelenskyy argued that a ceasefire should be achieved first, followed by discussions on political compromises and a long-term settlement. He also suggested that stopping the fighting along the current front line could serve as an initial step, while emphasizing that this would not amount to legal recognition of territorial changes.

The most intriguing question remains who actually initiated Abramovich’s visit to Kyiv.

Putin said Abramovich had told him that he had been invited to the Ukrainian capital, although the Russian president did not explicitly identify who had extended the invitation.

The Financial Times reported that Zelenskyy had invited the former owner of Chelsea Football Club to Kyiv in order to send Putin a proposal for direct negotiations. According to people familiar with the matter, the Ukrainian side wanted to demonstrate the seriousness of its intentions and its readiness to communicate with Moscow, even without direct US mediation.

The unofficial channel reportedly became particularly important as Washington’s attention increasingly shifted toward developments in the Middle East.

However, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, citing an informed source within government circles, presented a different account. According to its report, the initiative came from the Russian side, which wanted to understand Kyiv’s conditions for ending the war.

Under this version, Abramovich arrived in the Ukrainian capital as an unofficial intermediary acting on Moscow’s behalf. Zelenskyy outlined Ukraine’s position, confirmed his readiness for direct negotiations, but rejected any discussion of surrendering the Donbas to Russia.

The contradiction between these versions may reflect the nature of behind-the-scenes diplomacy. Both sides may have been interested in establishing contact, while each sought to avoid appearing as the party actively requesting negotiations.

It also remains unclear on whose behalf Abramovich was speaking when he reportedly told Zelenskyy that Russia wanted to understand Kyiv’s intentions. Putin denies formally sending him to Ukraine, while Abramovich himself has not publicly commented on the trip.

This was not the first time Roman Abramovich had acted as an intermediary between Moscow and Kyiv. In the spring of 2022, he participated in talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, previously described Abramovich as an effective intermediary between the two delegations. The billionaire was also involved in discussions concerning prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children.

His role has become less public over time, but reports suggest that he has continued to participate in efforts to resolve selected humanitarian and political issues. His usefulness appears to stem from his ability to maintain working contacts with representatives of both Russia and Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Abramovich’s May mission has not yet produced a visible diplomatic breakthrough. No personal meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy has been agreed, the fighting continues, and the positions of Moscow and Kyiv on territorial issues remain fundamentally incompatible.

Even so, the billionaire’s visit demonstrates that unofficial communication channels remain active behind the public rhetoric. Through such contacts, the parties are attempting to assess each other’s real intentions, explore possible conditions for a ceasefire and evaluate the prospects for direct dialogue.

Abramovich is neither an official diplomat nor a formally authorized representative of the Kremlin or Kyiv. Instead, he appears to act as an intermediary whom both sides are at least willing to hear out.

Who first proposed his trip remains unclear. However, the existence of such a channel indicates that, despite uncompromising public statements and mutual accusations, efforts to identify a possible path toward negotiations have not completely stopped.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev