Poland’s police chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk was hospitalized with minor injuries on Wednesday after receiving a gift that exploded after his visit to Ukraine earlier this week, a statement from Poland’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
“Yesterday at 7:50 a.m., an explosion occurred in a room adjacent to the office of the Police Chief,” the statement said.
“During the Police Chief’s working visit to Ukraine on December 11-12 this year, where he met with the heads of the Ukrainian Police and Emergency Situations Service, he received some gifts, one of which exploded.”
The statement alleged the gift came from one of the heads of Ukrainian services. CNN has reached out to Kyiv regional police and national police for comment but have not yet received a response.
The police chief was hospitalized for observation and a member of staff from the police headquarters also suffered minor injuries, but did not need hospitalization, the statement said.
The statement added that Poland has asked Ukraine to clarify what happened and a case was “immediately opened” with the prosecutor’s office and corresponding services.
The incident comes after a slew of suspicious mail was sent to Ukrainian embassies in Europe, pushing Ukraine to put all of its overseas diplomatic stations under heightened security.
Kyiv’s embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Austria, and the consulates general in Naples and Krakow, have also received suspicious packages, Oleh Nikolenko, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said on Dec. 2 in a Facebook post.
