Animal eyes contain .. Ukrainian embassies receive “bloody parcels”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that several Ukrainian embassies abroad received “bloody parcels” containing animal eyes, after a series of booby-trapped parcels were sent to the headquarters in Spain, including the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid.

Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook that parcels containing a liquid with a characteristic color and smell were sent to embassies in Kiev in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, and at the consulates in Naples, Krakow and Brno.

“We are studying the meaning of these messages,” Nikolenko said, adding that Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had ordered increased security in all the embassies and consulates concerned.

Nikolenko also said that the entrance to the Ukrainian ambassador’s apartment in Vatican has been vandalized. A source from the embassy in Rome told Reuters that someone had left human waste in front of the door.

Nikolenko added that the embassy in Kazakhstan had received a bomb threat, which has not been proven in following. He also explained that the US embassy had received a letter containing an article criticizing Ukraine. He added that its source, like most of the other messages, came from a single European country but gave no details.

Ukraine’s Interfax news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Thursday that several Ukrainian diplomatic missions had received threatening letters immersed in red liquid.

The agency said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described these incidents as an attempt to intimidate Ukrainian diplomats.

He quoted his words on national television: “If they have already started attacking embassies… it means they are afraid of us and are trying to stop us.”

“Inside these letters was a symbolic threat to Ukraine,” he said, “all the envelopes were immersed in a red liquid upon receipt”.

A package intended for the Ukrainian ambassador in Spagna exploded on Wednesday at the Madrid embassy as a security official was checking him, causing minor injuries.

The Ambassador of Ukraine in Spain, Serhiy Bohurltsev, seemed to point the finger at Russia.

Russia has launched a military operation in Ukraine nine months ago. Spain has sent or pledged to send military and humanitarian equipment to support Ukraine in the war.