A letter bomb exploded inside the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on Wednesday (Krone reported). In a statement, the Spanish police confirmed that an embassy employee was slightly injured. On the same day, a weapons company that produces rocket launchers, donated to Kiev, received another letter – but the bomb was checked and detonated there in time. There were no injuries in the factory. Police are now investigating possible links between the two bombs. For the judiciary, a terrorist attack cannot be ruled out.
In the Ukrainian embassy incident, an official was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador. Kiev reacted immediately and ordered heightened security measures in all its foreign missions. The letter caused a “very minor wound” on the embassy worker’s finger, Mercedes Gonzalez, a Spanish government official, confirmed to Telemadrid TV. The letter previously arrived by regular mail and had not been scanned.
Package was addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador
Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev told Ukrainian news site European Pravda that the suspicious package was addressed to him. However, it was handed over to an embassy commander, a Ukrainian employee.
“The package contained a box that made the commander suspicious, so he decided to take the package out – with no one around – and open it,” Pohoreltsev said. “After opening the box and hearing a click, he threw it away and then heard the explosion. Although he was not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the commander injured his hands and suffered a concussion,” said the ambassador of Ukraine.
Both letter bombs had the same sender
Hours later, a weapons company in Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain, received a similar package. The police confirmed this on Wednesday. The government representative in Zaragoza, Rosa Serrano, said in an interview with broadcaster SER that the two envelopes appeared to come from the same sender – the back of both packages had the same email address. Serrano said the packages came from Ukraine, which alerted the weapons company, which then called police.
The arms company is Instalaza, the maker of the C90 missile launcher that Spain is donating to Ukraine. After the first incident, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security measures. He also called on Spain to investigate the attack, a ministry spokesman said. The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the second incident.
Attack as a possible case of terrorism
Ambassador Pohoreltsev later told TVE that he worked at the embassy as usual – “without fear”. “We have instructions from the Ukrainian ministry that, given the situation, we must be prepared for any kind of incident… any kind of Russian activity outside the country,” he said. Spain’s Supreme Court has opened an investigation into the attack as a possible case of terrorism, a judicial source said. Police carried out a controlled explosion at the factory and the incident caused no damage, the same media reported.
The envelope sent to Zaragoza was 10 x 15 cm, and an X-ray showed the explosive charge with a wireline ready to be activated when the envelope was opened, Serrano said. Correos, Spain’s state-owned postal service, told Reuters it was cooperating with the investigation. The residential area around the embassy in northwest Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal squad was sent to the scene, as was the area around the Zaragoza factory.
Source: Krone
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