Monaco bombing suspect found dead in Ukraine as two intelligence-linked men face murder charges

Two Ukrainian security and intelligence personnel have been arrested and charged with the murder of a Ukrainian woman suspected of carrying out the parcel bombing in Monaco.

They are an officer with Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) and a former law enforcement officer.

Anastasiia Berezovska, the 39-year-old Ukrainian woman, was found shot dead in a forest near Kyiv after fleeing back to Ukraine following the attack in Monaco that seriously maimed a woman and wounded others.

In the bombing, she targeted a Ukraine-born business tycoon who was seriously injured.  

While the victims have not been officially identified, police sources told French media they were Vadym Iermolaiev, 58, a businessman originally from Ukraine who now holds Cypriot citizenship, his girlfriend and their son.

Iermolaiev and his partner were taken to hospital with serious injuries, while the child sustained minor injuries. Thewoman who suffered severe injuries resulting in the amputation of both legs.

Iermolaiev had been living in Monaco as part of a group of wealthy Ukrainian businessmen and politicians.

Ukraine imposed sanctions on Iermolaiev in 2023, alleging he had maintained business links with Russian entities operating in Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow, including Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

This week, the bomber was found with a gunshot wound to the head.

On Friday, Interpol issued a red notice for Anastasiia Berezovska, which urged law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest the suspect pending extradition.

It also said Berezovska was wanted by Monaco on charges of attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.

More reports now reveal that the woman had received payments in cryptocurrency from the two men, leading investigators to treat them as “individuals potentially involved in the attempted murder in Monaco”.

Prosecutors are now saying that the serving HUR officer was “acting on his own initiative” and did not inform his superiors about his contacts with Berezovska.

French prosecutors allege Berezovska, who had been living in Germany and speaks German, disguised herself as a man before placing an explosive device in the entrance hall of the targeted family’s apartment building in Monaco.