On the evening of June 29, an explosion rang out in the elite Monaco district of Le Roches. An unknown person left an explosive-laden bag at the door of a residential building and disappeared. Three people were injured — businessman Vadim Yermolaev, his common-law wife, and their 13-year-old son. According to media reports, the woman suffered amputation of both legs.
On July 17, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko released a restored video recording and explained why it was so important.
"The perpetrators deliberately installed a surveillance camera near the crime scene to obtain confirmation of the execution of the contract."
Ruslan Kravchenko, Prosecutor General of Ukraine
In other words, the camera was not operated by the police or the city. It was installed by the perpetrators themselves to record the explosion and send confirmation to the customers that "the job is done." The suspects deleted the video. SBU specialists restored it. The frames show three people climbing stairs—and at that moment, an explosion occurs.
Who planted the explosive—and what happened to her next
Monaco authorities identified 39-year-old Anastasia Berezovska, a native of Zhytomyr, as the main suspect in carrying out the attack. Interpol issued a red notice for her. On July 1, she returned to Ukraine. On July 6, her body with gunshot wounds was found buried in a forest near the village of Yuriiv in the Buchansk district of Kyiv region.
The SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General reported the detention of two men on suspicion of her murder. The investigation established that both men repeatedly made transfers to Berezovska's crypto and bank accounts. According to official data, one of the detainees is a former law enforcement officer, and the other is a current officer of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
The Schemes project (Radio Liberty) identified both detainees and determined that one of them may be connected to the SBU. The official investigation has not publicly confirmed this version.
Who is Yermolaev and why the case is more complex than a domestic conflict
Vadim Yermolaev is a Dnipro multimillionaire who ranked 45th in the Forbes Ukraine rating in 2021. He is under sanctions. His older son Andrii was detained in Cyprus in December 2025 and extradited to Estonia—where he admitted guilt in a fraud call-center case and paid €8.5 million in compensation to victims.
The investigation in Monaco is examining several versions of who ordered the attack. French media outlet Le Figaro reported that among them is a version implicating the SBU as an institution. Anonymous sources for the publication suggest that the goal may have been not murder, but a "warning." The SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General do not comment on this version.
Yermolaev himself contacted authorities for the first time after the explosion and, according to media reports, accused specific individuals of organizing the attack. Who exactly was not clarified publicly.
The investigation in Monaco is being conducted under several charges: attempted murder, intentional placement of an explosive device in a public place, and creation of a criminal organization. The principality's Prime Minister Christophe Myrman confirmed that it is a planned attack. Terrorism as a motive has been ruled out.
A chain that can already be traced: customer → transfer of funds to the perpetrator's accounts → explosion in Monaco → perpetrator's return to Ukraine → her elimination. However, the key link—who stands at the beginning—remains publicly unestablished. If the investigation manages to prove a direct connection between the financial transfers made by the detained officers and the bomb order, the case will stop being a criminal story about an oligarch abroad and become a question of control over special services within the country.
