Status: 01.12.2022 12:59 p.m
An employee of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was injured by an exploding letter bomb. Other shipments went to a military base and a weapons factory – and the head of government is also affected.
Several incidents involving letter bombs and suspicious packages in Spain appear to be a series. A third package was discovered on Thursday and had been sent to an air force base near Madrid. The Defense Ministry said the base’s security systems had triggered an alarm because of a suspicious mechanism. As a result, special forces were deployed to the base, which is often used for government flights and transports to Ukraine.
Embassy staff injured in explosion
A letter bomb exploded in the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on Wednesday, slightly injuring an embassy employee. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, ordered increased security measures for all facilities.
Also on Wednesday, an explosive package was discovered in a Zaragoza arms factory that produces grenade launchers – Spain had already supplied them to Ukraine. This package had been blown up by the police. The Spanish authorities said the same e-mail address was given as the sender for both programs.
Spain’s National Court is now investigating terrorism – the Spanish authorities did not rule out that all the programs could be related to the war in Ukraine.
Letter also sent to the Prime Minister
A similar explosive device was sent to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez about a week ago. The government announced the incident only now, after the explosion in the Ukrainian embassy. The envelope addressed to the head of government containing “pyrotechnic material” was “discovered and neutralized by the security services,” the interior ministry said.