MADRID/KYIV, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Police in Spain are investigating a possible link between two letter bombs sent to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid and an arms company that makes rocket launchers that have gift to Kyiv, they confirmed in a statement on Wednesday.
In the first incident, an official at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb sent to the embassy, prompting Kyiv to order increased security at all its representative offices abroad.
The letter, which arrived by regular mail and went unchecked, caused “a small wound” on a finger when an officer opened it in the office’s garden, said Mercedes Gonzalez, an official of the Spanish government, to the broadcaster Telemadrid.
Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev told the Ukrainian news website European Pravda that the suspicious package sent to him was sent to the head of the embassy, a Ukrainian employee.
“In the package was a box, which raised the suspicions of the owner and he decided to take it outside – no one was around – and opened it,” Pohoreltsev said.
“After opening the box and hearing the next click, he threw it and then heard an explosion…Although he was not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the master his hands, and die.”
Hours later, a weapons company in Zaragoza, northeastern Spain, received a similar package, police confirmed.
The representative of the government in Zaragoza, Rosa Serrano, said in an interview with the station SER that the two envelopes appeared to be from the same sender, because the same email address was written on the back of both of them. Serrano said the packages came from Ukraine and that’s what alerted the weapons company, who called the police.
The arms company is Instalaza, the maker of the C90 rocket launcher that Spain donated to Ukraine.
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[1/8] Police stand outside the Ukrainian office after Spanish police said a shooting at the palace injured an employee while handling a letter, in Madrid, Spain November 30 , 2022. REUTERS/Juan Medina
After the initial crisis, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv foreign offices to “strengthen” security and urged Spain to investigate the attack, a source said. minister’s spokesman.
The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the second incident.
Ambassador Pohoreltsev later told TVE that he was working as usual in the office “without fear”.
“We have instructions from the ministry in Ukraine that the situation requires us to prepare for any situation … any kind of Russian activity outside the country,” he said.
Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago in what it calls a “military operation” that Kyiv and the West say is an imperialist land grab.
Spain’s High Court has opened an investigation into the attack as a possible terrorist attack, a judicial source said.
The police carried out an explosion inside the factory and there was no damage, according to media reports.
The envelope sent to Zaragoza was 10 x 15 cm and the X-ray showed an explosive charge and a telephone line ready to activate the opening of the envelope, according to Serrano.
Correos, Spain’s state-owned postal company, told Reuters it was cooperating with the investigation.
The residential area surrounding the embassy in the northeast of Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit was sent to the area, as well as the area around the Zaragoza factory.
Belén Carreño, Jesus Aguado, David Latona, Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro in Madrid, Tom Balmforth in Kyiv; written by Charlie Devereux; edited by Deepa Babington, Alistair Bell and Cynthia Osterman
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