MADRID:Thursday, a series of letter bombs sent to the prime minister and the US embassy, similar to the one that injured a staff member at the Ukrainian embassy, were under investigation by Spanish police.
On November 24, the interior ministry made it clear that an envelope containing "pyrotechnic material" had been delivered to the official residence of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.A controlled explosion destroyed it.
Spain's High court in the mean time reported it had widened an underlying examination over the Ukraine consulate letter bomb to cover the wide range of various episodes.
Both announcements came a day after the security officer at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid suffered a minor hand injury while opening a letter bomb addressed to the Ukrainian ambassador. This incident prompted Kyiv to increase the level of security at its embassies around the world.
Like the others that were discovered, that letter was sent by regular mail.
The interior ministry reported that a second "suspicious postal shipment" was detained at the headquarters of the military equipment company Instalaza in the northeastern city of Zaragoza.
Instalaza makes the explosive launchers that Spain gives to Ukraine.
The defense ministry received letter bombs on Thursday morning;and at a military airfield in Torrejon de Ardoz, outside of Madrid, where Spain delivers weapons to Ukraine.
According to Rafael Perez, Spain's secretary of state for security, "the characteristics of the envelopes, as well as their content, are similar in the five cases." Perez made this statement to journalists.
"There are signs that indicate that the letters came from Spanish territory, but I insist that we must exercise caution...we are only at the beginning of the investigation," the investigator stated.
Another letter "with similar characteristics as the others" had been intercepted at the US embassy in Madrid, according to the interior ministry a few hours after he spoke.
Serhii Pohoreltsev, Ukraine's ambassador to Spain, appeared to attribute the letter bomb at its embassy to Russia.
During an interview with Spanish public television in the late afternoon of Wednesday, he stated, "We are well aware of the terrorist methods of the aggressor country."
He added, "Russia's methods and attacks necessitate our readiness for any incident, provocation, or attack."
However, Russia's embassy in Spain issued the following statement on Thursday:Any threat or terrorist act, particularly one that targets a diplomatic mission, is utterly unacceptable.
Margarita Robles, Defense Minister, was the recipient of the letter to the ministry of defense.The one that was delivered to the air base was intended for the European Union satellite center that was located there.
According to its website, this center gathers data from satellite imagery to support the bloc's foreign and security policy.
According to the ministry statement, security officers determined that the envelope that arrived at the air base contained "a mechanism" after X-ray scanning it.The envelope was still being examined by police.
Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, stated that three embassies had recently received threatening letters.
He went on to say that the letters had been "soaked in red liquid," not explosives, but rather some other substance.
After the letter bomb went off at the embassy in Madrid on Wednesday, the country's foreign ministry stated that Kuleba had already issued an order to increase security at all of their embassies.
All embassies and consulates in the country, as well as "other sites that require special protection," have been subjected to increased security measures, according to the interior minister of Spain.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine started in February, security had already been improved.
Spain is helping Ukraine with arms, training Ukrainian troops as part of a program run by the European Union, and providing humanitarian aid.