CNN
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More than a dozen letters containing explosives or animal components have been despatched to Ukrainian diplomats around the globe, in line with Ukraine’s overseas minister Dmytro Kuleba.
“This campaign is aimed at sowing fear,” Kuleba advised CNN’s Matthew Chance in an unique interview in Kyiv on Friday.
There have been 17 instances of embassies receiving both letter bombs, false bomb letters, or letters containing animals components, just like the eyes of cows and pigs, he added.
CNN was proven a picture of one of many letters containing what officers stated was the eyeball of a pig inside a padded envelope.
“It started with an explosion at the embassy of Ukraine in Spain,” Kuleba stated. “But what followed this explosion was more weird, and I would even say sick.”
Kuleba was referring to an explosion that occurred on Wednesday at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid, injuring one Ukrainian worker who was dealing with a letter addressed to the nation’s ambassador to Spain. Spanish officials said Thursday a letter bomb was additionally despatched to the nation’s prime minister final week and one other to the US embassy.
Kyiv’s embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Austria, and the consulates basic in Naples and Krakow, have additionally acquired suspicious packages, Oleh Nikolenko, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, stated Friday on Facebook.
The packages have been “soaked in a liquid of a characteristic color and had a corresponding smell,” he stated. “We are examining the meaning of this message.”
Ukraine has put all of its abroad diplomatic stations underneath heightened safety following the slew of suspicious mail.
The Ukrainian Consulate in Brno, a metropolis within the southeast of the Czech Republic, was briefly evacuated on Friday after receiving a suspicious package deal containing animal tissue, Czech police added in a tweet on Friday.
When requested who he thought was behind the letters, Kuleba advised CNN stated, “I feel tempted to say, to name Russia straight away, because first of all you have to answer the question, who benefits?”
“Maybe this terror response is the Russian answer to the diplomatic horror that we created for Russia on the international arena, and this is how they try to fight back while they are losing the real diplomatic battles one after another.”
He stated that he thought that Russia was both instantly accountable, or somebody “who sympathizes [with] the Russian cause and tries to spread fear.”
“The conclusion will be made by investigators, but I think these two versions make most of the sense.”
CNN has reached out to the Kremlin for touch upon the letters.
Kuleba earlier urged overseas governments to ensure most safety of Ukrainian diplomatic establishments in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
In addition to the suspicious packages, Nikolenko stated the doorway to the Ambassador’s residence within the Vatican was vandalized and the Ukrainian Embassy in Kazakhstan acquired a report of a bomb risk, which was later not confirmed.
Nikolenko additionally said that the Ukrainian Embassy within the United States acquired a letter with a photocopy of a essential article about Ukraine. Most of the envelopes have been despatched from inside Europe, he added.
Czech police tweeted that the consulate in Brno and its speedy environment, together with a kindergarten, have been evacuated Friday. After investigating the package deal, the police stated it didn’t comprise any explosives, including that that they had no info to point individuals on the consulate or its neighborhood have been in any hazard.
“Initial analysis suggest the package contained animal tissue. A detailed analysis of will be conducted in laboratories now,” the police tweeted.