The Russian Foreign Ministry has reported that a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Russian consulate in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. The ministry spoke of an “act of terror”. The ministry said it had formally protested the attack to Ukrainian authorities and called a top Ukrainian diplomat in Moscow to account.
Ukrainian authorities said unknown vandals threw a bottle containing a flammable liquid at the gate of the consulate in the city in western Ukraine early Friday morning. No one was injured.
The Russian foreign ministry said the “terrorist” incident was the result of “Russophobic hysteria” fueled by the government in Kiev. Only by “fortunate coincidence”, no consulate employees were injured, the ministry said.
A “resolute protest” and a request to honor the international obligation to protect diplomatic and consular missions was sent to the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. The Russian embassy in Kiev sent a protest note to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry calling for more security measures for the consulate and its staff.
Tensions between the governments of the two countries have risen in recent weeks due to the deployment of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border. Parts of eastern Ukraine have been controlled by pro-Russian separatists for more than seven years. Ukraine is also still demanding the return of Crimea, the peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014.
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