More suspicious packages found at Ukrainian embassies

Police in the Czech Republic have analyzed suspicious packages at the Ukrainian embassy in Prague and a consulate in Brno, discovering “animal tissue” in one of the letters. Kiev’s foreign ministry claims that several of its diplomatic outposts have been mailed rotting flesh and animal parts in recent days. 

The Czech national police announced on Friday that the Ukrainian consulate in Brno had been evacuated and bomb technicians sent in to investigate a “suspicious shipment.” Shortly afterwards, the force announced that the package did not contain explosives, but “animal tissue.”

Police then announced that “a similar shipment” arrived at Ukraine’s embassy in Prague. Bomb technicians were deployed to examine the package, which the police said “looks similar to the one that arrived in Brno.” Again, it was found to contain animal tissue.

Kiev ordered its embassies to tighten security after a package containing an explosive device was delivered to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on Wednesday. The parcel detonated in the hands of an employee.

Further explosive packages were delivered to the US embassy in Madrid, Spain’s Defense Ministry, the residence of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a satellite center at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base, and the Instalaza arms factory in Zaragoza, which produces grenade launchers intended for Ukraine.

While Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov blamed Russia for the spate of letter-bombs, Moscow denied the accusations and Spanish investigators have reportedly ruled out Russian involvement. Spanish authorities believe the letters were all sent by a single individual, and that the explosive material inside was of a kind commonly found in garden fireworks.

In addition to the Spanish letter-bombing campaign, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Friday that bloody parcels containing animal eyes had arrived at Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, Poland, Croatia, Italy and Austria, as well as Prague and Brno, over the past week. Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that these packages “were impregnated with a liquid of characteristic color and had a corresponding smell.”

All of these letters originated in a single European country, he continued, without revealing the country in question.