The police in the Romanian capital of Bucharest said in a statement early on Wednesday that a driver was killed by ramming his car into the gate of the Russian embassy after he doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire, the country’s media reported.
As the video recorded before firefighters arrived shows, the sedan rammed into the gate but did not enter the Bucharest embassy compound, leaving the front of the car in flames as it remained wedged in the gate.
Firefighters who arrived at the scene managed to put the fire out but the driver died at the scene, the police informed.
Although Romanian police refused to comment on the driver’s identity, Romanian media speculations identified the man as Bogdan Draghici, an activist for fathers’ rights, who was sentenced previously on Tuesday to 15-years in jail for rape and was banned from leaving the country.
Police also noted that it’s not clear whether the crash was deliberate or an accident considering the fact that several Russian embassies in Europe have been targeted in recent weeks by protesters angered by the invasion of Ukraine.
Draghici, who has visited Ukraine’s capital in 2019, allegedly protested against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and wrote on Facebook two days before that all people – just like him- should consider themselves Ukrainians until this terrible war is over.
Romania joined on Tuesday other European countries and said it would expel several Russian diplomats who were not acting in accordance with international rules at a time of increased outrage across the continent over reports of civilian killings and mass graves discovery in the Ukrainian town of Bucha following the Russian soldiers’ retreat.
Romanian Foreign Ministry pointed out in a statement they’ve informed the Russian ambassador of its decision to declare personae non-gratae on Romanian territory ten people working at the Russian embassy in Bucharest whose actions contravene the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relationships.
After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, nearly 624,860 Ukrainians have fled to Romania, which shares a long land border with Ukraine, and around 80,000 are still there.
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