The culprit was arrested by Swedish police, while no major damage to the mission was reported
Swedish police have arrested a Ukrainian national who tried to force his way into the Russian Embassy in Stockholm by ramming a car into its gates, the embassy said, adding that no serious damage was caused.
The incident took place on Tuesday morning, when an unnamed 45-year-old Ukrainian citizen attempted to drive his car through the entrance, the embassy said in a statement. Police officers swiftly apprehended the individual.
While noting that the embassy suffered no serious damage and no one was injured, the embassy criticized law enforcement for apparent negligence and failure to prevent such incidents in the first place. “The perpetrator of the incident is well known to the Embassy and local police,” it stressed.
The embassy noted that the suspect had already carried out attacks on Russian diplomatic facilities in Sweden in 2015 and 2018. At the time he “was deemed mentally unfit and was sent by Swedish authorities for appropriate treatment,” according to the statement.
The Ukrainian man has since resumed his sabotage activities, the statement read. “However, no serious measures were taken by the police against this individual, which led to today’s incident,” it added.
Swedish police have confirmed the incident, with local newspaper Expressen reporting that it is being investigated for attempted aggravated trespassing. Officials, however, declined to comment on the nationality of the culprit.
In November, an unidentified drone dropped paint on the Russian embassy in the country. According to Russian diplomats, the building and other property belonging to the embassy faced at least ten similar vandalism attempts in 2024 alone.
Since the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict in February 2022, Russian diplomatic missions have frequently been harassed and attacked, with vandals often throwing eggs at the buildings or defacing them with spray paint.
According to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the country hosting a diplomatic mission is responsible for protecting its premises from intrusion or other acts of violence.
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