An explosive gift sends the Polish police chief to the hospital after visiting Ukraine

CNN
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Polish police chief Jaroslav Szymczyk was hospitalized with minor injuries on Wednesday after a sudden explosion of a gift he received in Ukraine, according to a government statement.

“Yesterday at 7:50 am, an explosion occurred in a room adjacent to the police chief’s office,” the Polish Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

“During the working visit of the chief of police to Ukraine on December 11-12 this year, where he met with the chiefs of the Ukrainian police and the Emergency Situations Service, he received some gifts, one of which exploded.”

The statement claimed that the gift came from one of the heads of the Ukrainian services.

Poland asked Ukraine to explain what had happened and a case was “immediately opened” with the prosecutor’s office and the corresponding services, it said.

CNN has reached out to the Kyiv Regional Police and the National Police for comment but has not yet received a response.

Szymczyk was hospitalized for observation. According to the statement, one of the staff at the police headquarters sustained minor injuries, but did not require hospitalization.

The incident comes after a large number of suspicious messages were sent to Ukrainian embassies in Europe, which prompted Ukraine to place all its diplomatic centers abroad under strict security measures.

Kyiv’s embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy and Austria, as well as consulates general in Naples and Krakow, have received suspicious packages, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko.