CCTV footage shows a masked man spraying Mowcos’s consulate in New York with red paint
The Russian Consulate is seen covered in red paint, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, in New York © AP / Mary Altaffer
The Russian consulate building in New York City has been vandalized, with streaks of bright red paint seen sprayed onto its facade in an apparent protest against President Vladimir Putin signing treaties that pave the way for the inclusion of four former Ukrainian regions into the Russian Federation.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova denounced the attack in a Telegram post on Friday, sharing CCTV footage of the defaced diplomatic compound while accusing the United States and its NATO allies of fueling the conflict in Eastern Europe.
“Our Consulate General in New York. Look – this is how the Kiev regime and NATO, led by the United States, have been pouring blood over Donetsk and Lugansk all these years. The only thing they can do,” she said, referring to the capitals of the two breakaway provinces that first claimed independence from Ukraine back in 2014 and eventually held referendums to join Russia over that past week.
The New York City Police Department responded to a vandalism call around 1:30am on Friday morning, according to a statement obtained by CBS. No arrests have yet been made in connection to the defacing, which marred one side of the building with scribbles of red spray paint.
Graffiti still on the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in New York at 5:36pm, Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, Friday, September 30, 2022.#nyc nycTHREAD1/ pic.twitter.com/SaPqPJrMZD
— DataInput (@datainput) September 30, 2022
The presumed act of protest came as Russia accepted the results of referendums held in both the Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the former Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye. All four territories voted overwhelmingly to join the Russian Federation, according to local election officials and observers.
On Thursday, another Russian diplomatic building in Sofia, Bulgaria, was vandalized, with a local politician seen splashing red paint on a sign in front of Russia’s embassy. The political candidate, Ivan Kalchev, claimed he wanted to “honor the memory of the victims of the Ukraine war,” adding that he intended to pay respects to “all those innocent Russians who will be used as cannon fodder.”
