A year on: Ukraine still waiting for Roman Abramovich’s 2.3 billion pounds after Chelsea sale

The need is clear and urgent, but a year to the day since Chelsea’s fate was transformed by Russia’s invasion, forcing Roman Abramovich’s emergency sale, that money still sits frozen in a bank account under sanctions.

Progress has been painstaking, largely because of legalities involving not only the UK but the EU. “We are close, it’s the last hurdle,” one source said.

Mike Penrose, the former UNICEF UK chief executive, who was appointed to lead a foundation that will distribute that huge sum to Ukraine has been working to release the money. “It’s very complex internationally but we hope we are almost there,” he said. Jan Egeland, a senior Norwegian diplomat who once advised Kofi Annan at the United Nations, has been recruited as interim chairman.

Overloaded Ukrainian institutions should soon start to receive vital support. How that will affect views on Abramovich remains to be seen. Football moves so fast that it is easy to forget events of a year ago when, as bombs rained down on Ukraine, Abramovich ignored UK politicians’ demands to condemn Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion or face punitive sanctions.

The owner who had transformed Chelsea with 17 major trophies first passed the club to trustees and then made his parting wish that proceeds of a sale would go to good causes. He will not have a say in how the money is spent.

Abramovich’s departure from English football has been as remarkable, and inscrutable, as his arrival in 2003. This week a spokesperson for the oligarch declined to comment even on whether he still follows the club from afar.

In the past year, he has striven to act as an intermediary between Russia and Ukraine, taken personal involvement in release of war prisoners and suffered a suspected poisoning while fighting to keep his fortune amid sanctions from various nations. He is thought to split his time between Sochi, Istanbul and Tel Aviv. He has not set foot in London in the past year because of sanctions.

As well as the impounding of Chelsea, Abramovich had more than pounds 5.4 billion of his assets frozen in Jersey while 12 properties were seized by the French government.

While seeking to protect his fortune, the oligarch appears to have trodden a delicate path trying to act as a mediator between the Kremlin and Ukraine - with minimal success. His involvement was reportedly approved by Putin, but the role brought risks. After a meeting in Kyiv last March, Abramovich and two Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered a suspected poisoning attack, with irritated eyes and peeling skin.

Peace talks subsequently collapsed, and Abramovich’s role appears to have diminished. He has more recently been involved in a grain agreement and in prisoner swaps.

Last September, he had an unlikely role as fixer in prisoner exchanges when he assisted ten men, including British and American fighters captured in Ukraine, onto a private jet at a deserted airport terminal in southern Russia.

Meanwhile, Chelsea is transformed under new ownership - and not for the better, some fans would argue, given vast spending by the Todd Boehly regime has not stopped the team floundering.

The American consortium removed all Abramovich loyalists from senior management, including Bruce Buck, the former chairman, and Marina Granovskaia, once the main hands-on director.

Granovskaia is said to be weighing up whether a new job in football - she has not been short of offers - would be as rewarding as the power she enjoyed at Chelsea.

Buck has not been seen at Stamford Bridge for some time. It is debatable whether Abramovich will ever return - and how he should be greeted.

Originally published as A year on: Ukraine still waiting for Roman Abramovich’s 2.3 billion pounds after Chelsea sale