Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has said that the series of letter bombs mailed to targets in his country might be connected to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Grande-Marlaska wrote in a message to his EU counterparts and the European Commission that the six letter bombs “could be connected to the Russian invasion of Ukraine”, the Europa Press news agency reported on Friday.
The ministry confirmed the report.
The letter bombs were sent to leading Spanish politicians, the embassies of Ukraine and the US, an EU satellite centre at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base as well as a Spanish weapons manufacturer that has supplied equipment to Ukraine.
Elsewhere in Europe
Czech police evacuated the Ukrainian consulate in the city of Brno on Friday after a suspicious parcel arrived there.
A police spokesperson said the parcel, which is being examined using an X-ray machine, resembled the letter bombs mailed in Spain.
The explosive devices mailed in Spain were homemade and contained only small amounts of explosives and small metal balls, Spanish media reported on Friday.
The parcels did not explode upon opening but instead produced a flash of flame, the newspaper El Pais and the state TV broadcaster RTVE reported, citing police sources.
Only one of the letter bombs detonated, going off in the garden of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on Wednesday, causing injuries to a security officer’s hand.
No one has claimed responsibility for the letter bombs and authorities have not released information about possible suspects.
Police officers stand outside Spain’s Ministry of Defence after suspected explosive devices hidden in envelopes were mailed to the ministry, in the wake of other packages sent to targets connected to Spanish support of Ukraine, amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Madrid, Spain on December 1, 2022. [Juan Medina/Reuters]
While Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles did not specifically mention the series of dangerous letters during a visit to Ukraine on Wednesday, she did stress that Spain remains firmly on Ukraine’s side in the war.
“We will continue to help, as will all EU and NATO countries because we consider Ukraine’s cause to be just, the cause of peace and freedom,” Robles said.
Packages with animal eyes
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said packages containing animal eyes were also mailed to Ukrainian diplomatic missions in a number of countries.
The packages, which the foreign ministry said originated in a single European country, arrived at embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy and at consulates in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday that the country’s diplomats would continue working unperturbed by the incidents.
Police officers stand guard as they cordon off the area next to the US embassy in Madrid [Paul White/AP]
