Businessman targeted in Monaco bombing accuses Ukrainian military intelligence

A Ukrainian businessman who survived an assassination attempt in Monaco has accused Ukraine's military intelligence service of organizing the attack, the British newspaper The Guardian reported today.

In his first public address after the explosion that rocked the wealthy principality, Vadim Yermolayev claimed that active and former members of the GUR military intelligence service were behind the assassination attempt, in which he was injured and his partner suffered serious, life-threatening injuries.

"Based on the investigative evidence available to us, we have no doubt that active members of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, known as the GUR, were directly involved in this assassination attempt," Yermolayev said in a statement released by his lawyers, the Guardian reports in a text on its website.

French investigators have identified the bomb suspect as Anastasia Berezovskaya, accusing the Ukrainian national of planting an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent. The bomb exploded as Yermolayev was leaving the building with his partner and their 13-year-old son.

A few days after the attack, Berezovskaya was found dead near Kiev. Ukrainian authorities arrested two suspects in her murder: Vladislav Reut, a member of the GUR, and Oleksandr Zhikovich, a former law enforcement officer.

Appearing in court in Kiev last Thursday, Reut claimed that Zhikovitch was responsible for Berezovskaya's murder. According to the prosecution, the two men forced her into a car at gunpoint and then drove her to a forest near the village of Yuriv, about 60 kilometers west of the Ukrainian capital, where she was killed.

Ukrainian prosecutors have attempted to portray the case as the work of an individual in the intelligence service acting arbitrarily, claiming that Reut concealed his contacts with Berezovsky and acted without the knowledge or approval of the service's leadership.

Yermolayev rejected such a version of events, saying in his statement: "Based on the evidence currently available, the conspiracy went beyond the direct perpetrators and organizers and included active members of the GUR associated with them, including persons close to the current and former leadership of the service."

Yermolayev said the explosion "was powerful enough to tear apart the steel fences and destroy the stone steps in front of our home. This was not a warning. This was an attempt to kill not only me, but my family."

He said his partner Ana suffered "catastrophic and permanent injuries", while their son suffered burns, fractures and other serious injuries.

"I am still in intensive care and I am only now starting the long process of recovery," added Jermolajev.

The Guardian writes that this case is an embarrassment for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and could damage relations with European partners if claims of GUR involvement and direct knowledge of its leadership receive further confirmation.

The incident came at a politically sensitive moment for the Ukrainian president, who is facing criticism over his decision to dismiss widely respected Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

The motive for the assassination attempt remains unclear. In 2023, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Yermolayev, one of the country's richest businessmen, whose fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at $220 million. Kiev accused him of continuing to trade alcohol in Russian-occupied Crimea and of paying millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian state budget.

Ukraine has carried out numerous deadly operations using explosive devices against senior Russian military officers and Ukrainian officials close to the Kremlin inside Russia, but there is no precedent for such an attack on European soil. Yermolayev was not known to have held pro-Russian views or to have publicly aligned himself with the Kremlin.

Another theory is that the bombing was linked to organized crime, with members of the Ukrainian military intelligence service hired to carry out a contract killing. Ukrainian authorities have accused Yermolayev's adult son, Artur, of creating a criminal organization involved in large-scale phone scams in his father's hometown of Dnipro. Such phone scam networks have long been associated with organized crime groups, although there is currently no publicly available evidence linking these allegations to the Monaco bombing.