Ukraine embassies and consulates across Europe have received grotesque packages this week—many containing bloody animal tissue and animal eyes—according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The postal attack started earlier in the week at the Ukrainian Embassy to Spain with a letter bomb, according to the ministry in a Facebook statement. That letter bomb was one of six that targeted embassies in Madrid, including a letter bomb sent to the U.S. Embassy.
Embassies and consulates in Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland received increasingly creepy packages. The Ukrainian consulate in Brno, Poland, and the consulate in Naples, Italy, received animal eyes in an envelope “soaked in a liquid of a characteristic color and a correspondent smell.” The Ukrainian Embassy in Spain received a similar package, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said.
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The entrance to the Ukrainian Embassy to the Vatican was vandalized with graffiti and human feces, according to an employee there, who said they had received subtle threats all week. Police in Italy confirmed they are investigating and will run DNA tests.
Embassies to the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Austria received “animal tissue” reportedly stripped of fur.
The Ukraine Embassy in the U.S. also received a letter from a European address that contained an article critical of Ukraine, though the spokesperson did not say from what publication or from which European country it was sent.
The Ukrainian government only confirmed the gruesome threat on Friday. “We have reason to believe that there is a well-planned campaign of terror and intimidation of Ukrainian embassies and consulates,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleva said in a statement. “Unable to stop Ukraine on the diplomatic front, they are trying to intimidate us.”
While not naming Russia in the statement, Ukraine government spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said all Ukraine embassies had been put on alert. “We are studying the meaning of this message,” he added.
