Suspicious packages sent to Ukrainian missions came from Germany – Kyiv

KYIV (Reuters) – A series of suspicious packages sent to Ukrainian embassies all bore the address of a Tesla car dealership in Germany and were usually sent from post offices without video surveillance, Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Facebook that 31 Ukrainian missions in 15 countries had received such packages in what he called a “campaign of terror against Ukrainian diplomats”.

Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russia, said last week “bloody packages” containing animal eyes had been sent to some of its missions in Europe, soon after a letter bomb detonated at its embassy in Spain and police defused others sent to, among others, Spain’s prime minister.

“All the envelopes have the same sender address: the Tesla car dealership in the German town of Sindelfingen. Usually, the shipment was made from post offices that were not equipped with video surveillance systems,” Kuleba wrote.

“Criminals also took measures not to leave traces of their DNA on the packages. This, in particular, indicates the professional level of implementation.”

German authorities and electric carmaker Tesla’s dealership in Sindelfingen in southern Germany did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been criticised in Ukraine for suggesting a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine that proposed terms Kyiv viewed as rewarding Russia.

Musk also caused alarm in Kyiv when he said in October that his rocket company SpaceX could not indefinitely fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, which has helped the country’s civilians and military stay online during the war with Russia.

A day later, Musk said SpaceX would continue to fund Starlink in Ukraine, citing the need for “good deeds”.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and by Berlin newsroom, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Crispian Balmer)