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Driver dies after ramming car into gates of Russian embassy în Bucharest
A driver has died after crashing a car into the gates of the Russian Embassy in Bucharest, Romania in the early hours of Wednesday, local police said.
The sedan rammed into the gate at 6am (4am UK time) before bursting into flames. The vehicle did not manage to reach the compound where diplomatic staff were stationed.
Video of the aftermath showed the car engulfed in fire as security personnel ran through the area.Firefighters were able to put out the flames but the driver died at the scene, police said.There was no immediate information on a motive.
Bogdan Staicu, the prosecutor who arrived at the scene, told reporters that several containers with flammable substances were discovered inside the vehicle, which will be examined by forensics experts. The incident was on Wednesday under investigation and a postmortem will be carried out, Mr Staicu said.
The Russian embassy expressed condolences to the family of the driver.
“We must state with regret that whatever the motives of the driver, there is no doubt that he committed this act under the influence of an explosion of anti-Russian hysteria in connection with a staged provocation in the city of Bucha,” it said.
The embassy said no employees were injured.
Moscow’s ambassador to Romania Valery Kuzmin told Russian state-owned TV channel Tass that the embassy in Bucharest has received numerous threats by email. “The atmosphere that has been gradually forming here is very tense,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) rejects the position of the Russian Federation's Embassy in Bucharest following the regrettable incident that took place on Wednesday morning.
"MAE considers as rash, completely inappropriate and inopportune the qualification in any way of this incident. MAE also rejects any attribution of political context or significance of this tragic event and appeals to the Embassy of the Russian Federation to manifest maximum restraint in offering any sort of interpretation before the responsible authorities conclude their investigation. Until the investigation is complete and the results of it communicated by the competent Romanian authorities, any sort of prior statements represent only unfounded speculations," reads a press release sent by MAE.
According to the quoted source, MAE highlights that the integrity of the staff of the Russian Federation Embassy in Romania was not affected, nor its building.
"MAE draws attention that Romanian institutions have prepared, since February 24, 2022, that the security staff allocated to the Russian Federation be supplemented. Also, on March 5, a new measure for consolidating the Russian Federation's Embassy protection was prepared, by allocating a new patrol, support and intervention team. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlights that these measures to supplement the protection staff were also disposed to operatively meet the expectations of the Embassy of the Russian Federation," the quoted press release specifies.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterates, on this occasion, too, the firm condemnation of the crimes committed in Bucha and other cities in Ukraine, for which the responsibility belongs to Russia, being committed in areas in Ukraine that were under the occupation of the Russian armed forces at the time of their being committed.
"Romania considers that it is very important for all those that committed these actions to be investigated, brought to justice and to answer for their actions," MAE highlights.
The crash outside the embassy came only days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of committing a "war crime" in Bucha, in an address to the Romanian Parliament. Mr Zelenskyy also used the speech to call for tougher sanctions against Moscow.
Marcel Ciolacu, Romania’s President of the Chamber of Deputies, had earlier said the “horrible images” that came to light after Russian troops withdrew from Bucha have “overwhelmed and revolted us all”.
Russia denied its forces had carried out atrocities and said the photos showing bodies in civilian clothes had been "stage-managed by the Kyiv regime for the western media".