{"id":683776,"date":"2026-07-10T06:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683776\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T06:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T06:42:12","slug":"monaco-bomb-mystery-deepens-as-ukraines-security-services-are-linked-to-murder-of-prime-suspect-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/683776\/","title":{"rendered":"Monaco bomb mystery deepens as Ukraine\u2019s security services are linked to murder of prime suspect | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The case of a suspected bomber accused of targeting a Ukrainian oligarch has taken another murky turn, after details of her subsequent murder were revealed in court<\/a> with evidence suggesting the involvement of Kyiv\u2019s intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

French police last week named Anastasia Berezovska as the person captured on CCTV leaving a rucksack outside a Monaco apartment block. It blew up, injuring the Ukrainian businessman Vadym<\/a> <\/a>Iermolaiev<\/a> as he emerged from the building with his partner and their 13-year-old child.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said that Berezovska, 39, who had disguised herself as a man, fled in a car with German registration plates, crossing into France and then Italy.<\/p>\n

On 1 July, she travelled to Ukraine, catching a bus to her home town of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv. Officials announced on Tuesday that her body had been found in woods near the capital.<\/a><\/p>\n

An image released by Interpol of Anastasia Berezovska in Monaco, where she allegedly planted a bomb. Photograph: Interpol\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

According to Ukraine\u2019s SBU intelligence agency, Berezovska was met by two men, who had made payments to her bank and crypto accounts. One of them, Vladyslav Reut, appeared in court on Thursday, accused of her murder. Reut identified his alleged accomplice as Vitaliy Zhykovych, a former Kyiv region policeman.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian media reported that Reut, 33, studied law at the national university in Kyiv, and worked for Ukraine\u2019s GUR military intelligence agency. He served in unit A2772, a training centre for special operations forces, Radio Liberty reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Appearing in a Kyiv court on Thursday, Reut claimed Zhykovych was responsible for Berezovska\u2019s cold-blooded killing.<\/a> The two men took her at gunpoint to a forest near the village of Yuriv, 60km (40 miles) west of the capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cZhykovych fired the first shot at her in the back of the head. She fell down. He came up and fired another shot. I was standing a few metres away at that moment,\u201d Reut told the judge.<\/p>\n

He said four shots were fired before Zhykovych forced him to dig a hole, took all of Berezovska\u2019s personal belongings and removed her trainers. He added: \u201cI will insist on taking a polygraph to prove my innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhykovych\u2019s lawyer, Anatoliy Ivanov, said his client denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

The SBU said it found Berezovska\u2019s body after the men confessed and its officers recovered bullet casings from the forest.<\/p>\n

It also published grainy footage of what was described as a \u201ctorture chamber\u201d in the basement of Zhykovych\u2019s home in the town of Bilogorodka. Investigators later clarified that Berezovska was not tortured before her woodland murder.<\/p>\n

Bomb disposal officers at work outside the Monaco home of Vadym Iermolaiev. Photograph: S\u00e9bastien Nogier\/EPA<\/p>\n

Given the connection with Ukrainian military intelligence, the case is embarrassing for Ukraine\u2019s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>, even if \u2013 as officials say \u2013 the two men were acting alone. France\u2019s president, Emmanuel Macron, urged Zelenskyy to get to the bottom of the shady affair, and to punish those responsible.<\/p>\n

Responding to a question from the Guardian, Zelenskyy said he expected to receive \u201cfurther reports\u201d in the next few days about the \u201cwidely reported\u201d incident in Monaco<\/a>. \u201cI will update the public,\u201d he promised.<\/p>\n

Mykhailo Tkach, an investigative journalist with Ukrainska Pravda, said: \u201cIt would be hard to imagine a worse scenario. It will be very difficult to explain whether certain government officials \u2013 in particular from the GUR \u2013 were involved. It is obvious that an explanation will be required at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Ukraine imposed personal sanctions on Iermolaiev<\/a>, one of Ukraine\u2019s richest citizens, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $220m (\u00a3164m).<\/p>\n

The SBU accused him of continuing to trade alcohol in occupied Crimea and paying millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian treasury. Iermolaiev, 58, described the charges as \u201cabsolutely surreal\u201d and said he donated money to Ukraine\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

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Iermolaiev\u2019s son, Artur, was accused of creating a criminal organisation engaged in telephone fraud in his father\u2019s home city of Dnipro. According to Estonian investigators, Artur and three other defendants set up fraudulent call centres. He received a suspended sentence, paid \u20ac8.5m (\u00a37.2m) and left Estonia shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

One source who knows Iermolaiev socially said the bombing in Monaco and Berezovska\u2019s subsequent murder were criminal rather than political acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cVadym or members of his family didn\u2019t want to pay someone,\u201d they suggested. The source suggested the dispute was over protection money, adding: \u201cThe woman was disposable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details of Berezovska\u2019s life are still emerging. She had been staying in Frankfurt, where German police last week searched her apartment. Before that, she had lived in Zhytomyr, where she made a living from breeding dogs. In 2021 a court in the city reportedly found her guilty of petty hooliganism<\/a>. According to a ruling, she had \u201cinsulted another woman while intoxicated, used obscene language and pushed her\u201d.<\/p>\n

The speed of the suspects\u2019 arrests has surprised observers, with the SBU directly blaming an employee from the rival GUR agency. Some have speculated this reflects animosity between the two organisations.<\/p>\n

There are also unanswered questions as to how Berezovska managed to cross back into Ukraine, and whether or not she acted alone in Monaco.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Ukraine\u2019s state border service said she entered the country \u201clawfully\u201d on 1 July, via a regular border crossing point.<\/p>\n

It said the French authorities had not issued a warrant at that time for her arrest. \u201cDuring her border control checks, no database alerts \u2013 including those from Interpol \u2013 indicated that she was wanted,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

In Kyiv, the mysterious events have raised concerns about damage to Ukraine\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it will not have a serious impact. But our allies deserve an explanation,\u201d said the parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Merezhko. \u201cThe unusual thing is that the perpetrators were caught so quickly. That could be interpreted as evidence of a swift and effective operation by our law enforcement agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The case of a suspected bomber accused of targeting a Ukrainian oligarch has taken another murky turn, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-683776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}