Ukraine employee injured in Madrid letter explosion

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Ukraine employee injured in Madrid letter explosion

An explosion occurred Wednesday at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid, injuring a Ukrainian employee who was handling a letter addressed to the country's ambassador to Spain, officials said.

The person was slightly injured and is being treated at a hospital, while police are investigating, Spain s foreign ministry said.

The ambassador of Kyiv to Spain, Serhil Pohoreltsev, was the intended recipient of the envelope, it added.

A separate letter bomb, which was deactivated at a weapons manufacturer in northern Spain late Wednesday, had the same return address as the one that exploded in Ukraine's embassy in Madrid, a senior Spanish official told Spanish radio station SER.

The return address on the envelope is the same as on both envelopes, according to Rosa Serrano, the top Spanish government official in the Aragon region where the second bomb arrived, told SER.

The explosive sent to the weapons maker in the city of Zaragoza, in Aragon, apparently came from Ukraine, Serrano said, adding that authorities suspect the one at the embassy may have come from Ukraine.

An executive at the arms manufacturer was apparently aware of the Madrid explosion, so when an envelope arrived soon after, no one seemed to recognize, the company called the police, Serrano said.

The bomb squad arrived, a security perimeter was established and police determined that there were explosives inside the envelope, designed to explode upon opening. Serrano said it was deactivated.

Serrano didn't identify the firm, but Spanish media reported its name and said it manufactures rocket launchers that Spain sent to Ukraine to fight Russia's invasion of that country. CNN could not immediately confirm that detail.

Serrano said that the firm has been an arms manufacturer for a long time, with state-of-the-art facilities.

In response, Ukraine has increased security at all of its embassies.

Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, said the life of the injured employee is not at risk and descused the staffer's position as commandant. It's too early to know whether the explosion took place when the embassy worker tried to open an envelope or simply move it. In response to the incident, Nikolenko said no one else had been injured, and Kuleba has issued an urgent order to step up security at all Ukrainian embassies abroad.

Nikolenko quoted Kuleba as saying that whoever is behind the explosion will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work to strengthen Ukraine and counter Russian aggression.

Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Albares spoke to Ambassador Pohoreltsev after the incident, Madrid said. According to the statement, the person injured was a Ukrainian worker.

Spain, a NATO country, sent military equipment to Ukraine to help its armed forces fight Russia's invasion.

The Ukrainian Embassy is located in the district of Hortaleza in northeastern Madrid.