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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Rachel Hagan

‘Bloody’ packages containing animal eyeballs sent to Ukraine embassies as Russia blamed

Russia has been accused of sending "bloody" packages containing animal eyes to Ukrainian diplomats across the globe.

Ukraine said multiple European embassies have received the envelopes containing the gruesome body parts, including its embassy in Madrid, which also received a letter bomb earlier this week.

Ukraine's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, was asked by CNN who he thought was behind the letters.

He said: "I feel tempted to say, to name Russia straight away because first of all you have to answer the question, who benefits?"

“Maybe this terror response is the Russian answer to the diplomatic horror that we created for Russia on the international arena, and this is how they try to fight back while they are losing the real diplomatic battles one after another.”

Bloody parcels containing animal eyes were sent to Ukrainian embassies, including the Ukrainian consulate in Naples, Southern Italy (pictured) (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Authorities say the packages are soaked in a liquid with a distinctive colour and smell and have also been sent to embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, to general consulates in Naples and Kraków, and the consulate in Brno in the Czech Republic, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko.

Mr Kuleba said he thought that Russia was either directly responsible or that someone "who sympathises [with] the Russian cause and tries to spread fear" was.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded to his claims with a single-word comment: "psycho."

CNN was able to see a photo of one of the letters and said it appeared to contain the eyeball of a pig inside a padded envelope.

Consulate of Ukraine in Naples, Southern Italy (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

On Friday, Ukrainian consulate staff in Brno, a city in the southeast of the Czech Republic, were evacuated after receiving a suspicious package containing animal tissue.

Mr Nikolenko also said the entrance to the Ambassador’s residence in the Vatican was vandalized and the Ukrainian Embassy in Kazakhstan received an unverified report of a bomb threat.

The Ukrainian Embassy in the United States received a letter with a photocopy of a critical article about Ukraine. Most of the envelopes were sent from within Europe and six letter bombs were sent in the past week to addresses in Spain including to the Prime Minister.

Mr Nikolenko said the letter to the US arrived "synchronously" with others from the territory of "one European country."

He said Ukraine is working with foreign law enforcers to investigate the threats and bring those implicated to account.

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