Russia says its embassy in Stockholm hit by drone attack

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that its embassy in Stockholm had been targeted in a drone attack.

The ministry criticized the Swedish authorities for failing to prevent repeated incidents against the diplomatic mission.

“One quadcopter dropped a container of red paint onto the territory of the diplomatic mission. A second drone, to which an imitation of an improvised explosive device was attached, fell (apparently not by accident) onto our territory in close proximity to the Russian Embassy building,” it said in a statement.

The ministry said the second incident amounted to “an outright attempt to intimidate” embassy staff.

“The latter circumstance indicates that we are dealing not merely with a provocation, but with an overt attempt to intimidate employees of the Russian mission. To this we will say directly — it will not work,” the ministry stressed.

It said similar incidents had become systematic in Stockholm and accused Swedish authorities of failing to fulfil their obligations under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to protect foreign diplomatic missions.

According to the ministry, Swedish law enforcement agencies documented previous incidents but made no progress in investigations into dozens of attacks over the past two years.

Sweden, the ministry said, would bear responsibility for any further attacks on the Russian diplomatic mission and their possible consequences.