Ukrainian embassies and consulates in six European countries have received packages containing animal eyes in recent days, a Ukrainian official said on Friday.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that the “bloody packages” were received by Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, as well as consulates in Naples, Italy; Krakow, Poland and the Czech city of Brno. He said that “we are studying the meaning of this message.”
“It’s a very strong signal,” said the Ukrainian consul in Naples, Kovalenko Maksym, who confirmed that his office received two letters around 10:30 am Thursday that contained fish eyes.
Nikolenko said the packages arrived after a package containing an explosive device sent to the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid caught fire on opening on Wednesday, injuring an employee. That was one of the multiple explosive packages found in Spain this week.
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In addition, the entrance to the residence of the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican was vandalized and the embassy in Kazakhstan was warned about a bombing attack, although that was not confirmed, Nikolenko said.
In Poland, a Warsaw police spokesman confirmed by email that a package arrived at the Ukrainian consulate in the Polish capital on Thursday that “raised the concern” of one of the employees. The police department for the protection of diplomatic missions was notified and “we quickly eliminated the danger,” spokesman Sylwester Marczak said. He did not provide further details. Marczak said he was not aware of any such package reaching the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw.
Independence Square and the kyiv skyline are pictured above on October 19, 2022, amid the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian embassies and consulates in six European countries received packages containing animal eyes in recent days.
(BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images)
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In the Czech Republic, police said an X-ray scanner found no explosives in a checked package, but later added that animal tissue was found inside which was subjected to laboratory tests.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, said the entrance to his residence in Rome was littered with what he believed to be animal feces on Thursday afternoon. The door of the apartment building and the entrance stairs and walls were “smeared with a dirty substance with an unpleasant odor,” he told The Associated Press. He said his wife and his son were not home at the time, and they called the police.
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All Ukrainian embassies and consulates have stepped up security measures. Nikolenko quoted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba as saying “we have reason to believe that a well-planned campaign of terror and intimidation of Ukrainian embassies and consulates is underway.”
