Multiple Ukrainian embassies around the world have been targeted in recent days, following a bomb attack on the Ukrainian Embassy in Spain, which injured one, according to a top Ukrainian official.
“This is definitely a new form of terror,” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, said Thursday. “We certainly have a guess but we need to trace the entire network of agents and people involved in this campaign,”
The new incidents—which allegedly took place at two Ukrainian embassies outside of Spain—include threats, but are not related to explosives, according to Kuleba.
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“There are other disturbing events that are not related to explosives, but to the sending of very specific threats to Ukrainian embassies,” Kuleba said on the sidelines of the 29th OSCE Ministerial Council in Lodz, Poland.
Kuleba did not identify which embassies were targeted, but claimed it was an act of “terror.”
The news of surging threats against Ukrainian diplomatic missions around the world comes just one day after a staff member at the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid was injured Wednesday after opening a letter addressed to the Ukrainian Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev, which contained a bomb. Police in Spain worked to detonate a suspicious parcel that was sent to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid Thursday as well.
In total, there appear to have been eight incidents involving either parcels with explosives or threatening letters.
Spanish authorities are working with Ukraine to determine who is behind the attacks, Kuleba said.
"It is necessary to puzzle it out: who is involved, where it comes from, who sends them,” Kuleba said.
Some of the targets have raised questions about whether there are Russian hands behind the targeting. Another explosive hidden in a parcel was found at a military airfield near Madrid—one which has reportedly been sharing intelligence with Ukraine to help it defend against Russia’s invasion. Another package was delivered to the Spanish company Instalaza, a weapons manufacturer which produces weapons that Spain has been sending to Ukraine.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also received a letter bomb in recent days, although it was intercepted, according to Spanish authorities. Spain’s Defense Ministry has also reportedly been targeted, according to the BBC.
These five envelopes appeared to have been sent from inside Spain, according to a minister. The Russian Embassy in Madrid said the acts were “totally condemnable.”
The Secretary of State for Security of the Ministry of the Interior in Spain has ordered authorities to take “extreme measures” to protect public administrations and buildings in light of the attacks.
The Interior Ministry of Spain did not immediately return request for comment.
