Suspect in Monaco blast found dead in Ukraine
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJuly 7 (UPI) -- The main suspect in a Monaco bombing was found dead Tuesday in Ukraine.
The parcel bomb at the entrance to a residential building exploded on June 30 and seriously injured two adults and a 13-year-old boy.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said in a statement that the suspect, Ukrainian Anastasiia Berezovska, had been found shot to death. Police in Monaco had been searching for Berezovska, 39, for the attack and alleged attempt to kill a Ukrainian-born man and his family.
Two men were also arrested on suspicion of committing premeditated murder as part of a group acting in conspiracy, the statement said.
The men arrested included an officer in Ukraine's military intelligence agency and a former law enforcement officer. The statement said that the two men had paid Berezovska in cryptocurrency and that the intelligence officer was "acting on his own initiative," and not according to orders. It said he didn't inform his superiors that he was in contact with Berezovska.
The statement said the prosecutor is treating them as "individuals potentially involved in the attempted murder in Monaco."
The victims are not yet officially identified, but police sources told the French media that they were Vadym Iermolaiev, 58, his girlfriend and their son. The two adults were taken to a nearby hospital in France, while the teen only suffered minor injuries.
Iermolaiev is a Ukrainian-born businessman who got citizenship in Cyprus and has been living in Monaco since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was part of a group of wealthy Ukrainians that had been dubbed by the Ukrainian media as the "Monaco battalion." Ukraine had imposed sanctions on him because he maintained his business relationships with Russian entities operating in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.
Interpol had put out a red notice on Berezovska last week seeking to capture her. Monaco's deputy prosecutor said last week that the suspect had fled Monaco on foot into France, then traveled by car to Germany, where she had been living. She drove through several European countries, including Italy, the prosecutor said.
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