Letter bombs strike Spain, including premier’s office, U.S. and Ukraine embassies

Spain has boosted security around public buildings and diplomatic missions after a string of letter bombs were discovered this week, including one that injured an employee of the Ukrainian Embassy, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The targets included the U.S. Embassy, the prime minister’s office, the Defense Ministry, the arms manufacturer Instalaza in Zaragoza, the satellite center at a Madrid air base and the Ukrainian Embassy. Only in the case of the Ukrainian mission did the letter explode; in the other places, they were detected in time.

“As a result of these events, the National Police is conducting a confidential investigation,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that it had ordered “an increase in security measures around the consular legations present in our country as well as in other areas that need special protection.”

Perez Ruiz, the secretary of state for security, said Thursday that while the investigation was ongoing, it appeared all the letters originated from inside the country.

“Both the characteristics and the content of the envelopes were similar in all five cases,” he said, adding that investigators have clues on what the origin might be.

The letter to the prime minister’s office was found and neutralized on Nov. 24.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid and a Spanish arms manufacturer whose weapons are being used in Kyiv’s defense against Russia received letter bombs on Wednesday, with the former delivery causing a minor injury to a worker at the diplomatic mission.

The embassy envelope, addressed to Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev, exploded as an employee tried to open it, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said. The worker suffered injuries that were not life-threatening and received medical care.

The employee received superficial cuts to a finger on his right hand, according to El País, the Spanish newspaper. The letter was shipped in an 18-by-10-centimeter envelope and the address and recipient’s name were handwritten in blue ink, the newspaper reported, citing police.

On Wednesday afternoon, an envelope addressed to the head of Instalaza arrived at the company, which produces the C90 grenade launchers sent to Ukraine by the Spanish government. The building was evacuated and then the bomb was detonated by a National Police bomb squad, according to the ministry statement.

The letter to the Torrejón de Ardoz air base was detected in the early hours of the morning Thursday and, after being examined by X-ray technology, was deemed to contain a “mechanism.” Police are analyzing the envelope, which was addressed to the base’s satellite center, the Interior Ministry said.

The letter to the Defense Ministry was intercepted about 10 a.m. local time and addressed to the minister, Margarita Robles.

The Interior Ministry later reported that another envelope was found by security at the U.S. Embassy at 12:30 p.m. with “similar characteristics to the previous ones.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba instructed the country’s embassies to tighten security in the wake of the attack, Nikolenko said. Kuleba said the perpetrators of the attack would not intimidate Ukraine in its fight against Russia, according to the spokesman, who added that Kyiv had asked Madrid to urgently investigate the attack.

Spanish officials are investigating possible connections among the envelopes and examining whether they have any link to the Russian invasion, according to Spanish media.

The Spanish Embassy in Ukraine condemned the attack in a statement, saying the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

Madrid has been a steady supporter of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. As of August, the country had taken in some 130,000 Ukrainian refugees, according to the Spanish Foreign Ministry. It has also provided small arms and air defense assets, and dispatched financial aid to Kyiv.

Spain also pledged generators to Ukraine after repeated Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks.

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Rios reported from Brussels. The Washington Post’s Paul Schemm in London contributed to this report.