Bomb letters and packages with cow or pig eyes: more than two dozen Ukrainian embassies in twelve European countries have received packages with such contents in recent days. Ukraine announced on Friday that 17 embassies had been affected and pointed out that another package was delivered on Saturday, the British Observer reported on Saturday. The exact messages are only partially made public.
On Friday afternoon, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the packages have been delivered to the Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, to the consulates-general in Naples and Krakow and to the consulate in Brno in the Czech Republic. Republic eg. She later said that a similar package had also been delivered to the embassy in Madrid and detectives were there. Oleh Nikolenko (63), a spokesman for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, posted a photo of the Madrid embassy garden showing a Spanish police officer with a dog.
Packages all come from the same country
An employee of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was injured on Wednesday by a letter bomb addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain. On Wednesday, four more letter bombs were sent to addresses in Spain, including a Spanish arms manufacturer that has made missiles for Ukraine, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, 50, and the US Embassy in Madrid – but no injuries were reported.
In an interview with CNN, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, 41, described the events following the attack on the diplomatic mission in Madrid as “even stranger” and “sick”. He was tempted to call “Russia the culprit.” Because Russia would benefit from instilling fear among Ukrainian diplomats. However, Kuleba added that it could also be someone sympathetic to Russia.
A statement by Nikolenko seems to confirm this latter assumption. He said the packages were sent simultaneously from one European country – but for investigative reasons it could not yet be said which country was involved. Meanwhile, the Russian news agency Ria Novosti reports that the letter bombs were sent from the Spanish city of Valladolid.
«Systematic attack on Ukrainian missions»
Along with packages for other diplomatic missions in Europe, the residence of Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican was smeared with what Ukraine believes to be animal feces. “The door of the apartment, the stairs and the walls at the entrance were smeared with a foul smelling substance,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andriy Yurash, 53.
“It is difficult to explain why and what is the reason for this terrible news, but it is undoubtedly a systematic attack on Ukrainian missions across Europe,” he said. A false bomb threat hit the Ukrainian embassy in Kazakhstan.
Ukraine has urged its embassies to step up security and asked host countries for help. The Russian embassy in Madrid tweeted on Thursday that all terrorist attacks on diplomatic missions are “absolutely reprehensible”. (chs)