What We Know About the Monaco Bombing That Targeted a Sanctioned Ukrainian Businessman

An explosion in the heart of one of Europe's most tightly secured territories has opened an investigation that now stretches from Monaco to Germany, with a Ukrainian security service named as a possible suspect in an attack Monaco's own prosecutors initially treated as a case of organized crime. Nearly a week after the blast, the central facts are established, but the motive and the identity of who ordered it remain open questions.

The attack

At around 21:00 on June 29, an explosive device went off in the entrance hall of a residential building in Monaco, close to the border with France. According to Monaco's Minister of State, Christophe Mirmand, three members of a family were entering the building when the device detonated. The prosecutor's office said a package had been left in the lobby earlier that evening and was later detonated remotely.

Three people were injured, two of them seriously. French and Monegasque officials have not officially confirmed their identities, citing privacy rules, but multiple French outlets, including BFMTV, Nice-Matin and Le Figaro, along with Ukraine's own Ministry of Foreign Affairs, identified the victims as businessman Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and their 13-year-old son. Yermolaiev suffered burns and shrapnel wounds; his partner, reported by French media as Anna Nasobina, lost both legs and remained in critical condition for several days. The child's injuries were described as less severe. Ukraine's foreign ministry said in a statement that it was in contact with Monaco's authorities and confirmed that the injured were "members of a family of Ukrainian origin," while noting that their citizenship status was still being verified.

Monaco's Prosecutor General, Stéphane Thibault, has classified the case as attempted murder rather than terrorism. Deputy Prosecutor Morgan Raymond said investigators believe the attacker did not act alone, given the sophistication of the device. Two men detained in the days following the blast were later released for lack of evidence linking them to the case.

The suspect

On July 3, Interpol issued a red notice for Anastasiia Berezovska, a 39-year-old Ukrainian citizen described as German-speaking, with dark hair and a tattoo on her right arm. French investigators say she disguised herself as a man during reconnaissance of the building in the days before the attack and again on the night of the bombing, wearing a black bucket hat and loose clothing. Surveillance footage reportedly shows her fleeing on foot into the neighboring French town of Beausoleil after the blast, then leaving the area in a rental car booked in Germany under a false name and traveling through several European countries, including Italy, before resurfacing in Frankfurt. Monaco has requested her arrest on charges of attempted murder, planting an explosive device in a public place, and criminal conspiracy as part of an organized group.

Who is Vadym Yermolaiev

Yermolaiev, 58, is a businessman from Dnipro and founder of the Alef trading and manufacturing group, one of the city's largest property developers with interests spanning construction, agriculture, mining and logistics. Forbes Ukraine had ranked him among the country's hundred richest people, with his fortune estimated at over 200 million dollars before the full-scale invasion. He renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 in favor of a Cypriot passport, telling Forbes Ukraine at the time that he sought "international protection" from what he called an imperfect judicial and tax system.

In December 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky placed Yermolaiev under ten-year personal sanctions, including asset freezes, over his business activities in Russian-occupied Crimea. Ukraine's security service, the SBU, alleged that his companies, including the alcohol producer Alef-Vinal, continued operating in Crimea after 2014 under Russian law and paid taxes to the Russian state. Yermolaiev has denied the allegations, saying his firms tried and failed to preserve their Crimean assets before abandoning them, and that the operations were later seized outright by Russian authorities. He was also named in a 2022 investigation by Ukrainska Pravda into the so-called "Monaco Battalion," a group of Ukrainian businesspeople and officials who relocated to the French Riviera during the war.

His son, Artur Yermolaiev, was arrested in Cyprus in late 2025 and extradited to Estonia over his role in an international investment fraud scheme, the Milton Group, which is estimated to have defrauded victims of around 100 million euros. He pleaded guilty, paid 8.5 million euros in compensation and received a five-year suspended sentence.

What investigators are examining

French newspaper Le Figaro reported that Monaco investigators are pursuing a lead suggesting the SBU may have organized the attack, a theory neither Monaco's prosecutor's office nor any other official body has confirmed on the record. The SBU has not commented publicly. Ukrainian officials have not been asked to respond to that specific theory in an official capacity.

Other lines of inquiry reported in French and Ukrainian media include a business dispute connected to Yermolaiev's construction projects, unresolved debts and territorial disputes with organized crime figures in Dnipro, and fallout from his son's fraud case. One report, citing a former French intelligence officer, said Yermolaiev had recently discussed the possibility of testifying before the European Parliament on corruption in Ukraine, though this claim has not been independently verified. Searches were reportedly carried out at offices linked to Yermolaiev's businesses in Kyiv and Cyprus after the attack. No group has claimed responsibility.

Why it matters

The bombing is the first attack of its kind in Monaco's modern history, a territory that logs virtually no violent crime and monitors most public space through an extensive camera network. It also lands amid a wider pattern of violence involving prominent Ukrainians abroad, including the May 2025 killing of former lawmaker and lawyer Andrii Portnov, shot dead in Spain. Whatever the eventual findings in Monaco, the case has drawn renewed attention to the community of wealthy Ukrainians who relocated to Western Europe during the war and to the unresolved disputes, sanctions and criminal cases some of them carry with them.

Monaco's prosecutor's office has said the investigation, given the cross-border nature of the evidence, is likely to take months.