A 45-year-old man was arrested early Tuesday in Stockholm after ramming the metal gate of the Russian embassy with his car, police said.

Police were alerted around 7:00 am (0600 GMT) by a guard at the embassy.

“The man tried to drive through the gates. He failed and was still in the car when police arrested him,” a statement on the police website said.

The man “is suspected of aggravated unlawful intrusion”, it said.

The Russian foreign ministry said on Telegram that the suspect was a Ukrainian citizen with permanent residency in Sweden, “well known to the embassy and the local police”.

“In 2015 and 2018, he had already committed attacks on the embassy and the trade mission of Russia in Sweden,” it wrote.

“He was recognised as mentally incapable, and was sent by the Swedish authorities for appropriate treatment,” the ministry said.

“Recently, he has again begun to commit provocative actions against Russian foreign institutions in Stockholm,” it said, but “police did not take any serious action”.

Swedish police declined to comment on the Russian foreign ministry’s statement.