The prime suspect in the attempted assassination of Ukrainian-born businessman Vadym Yermolaev in Monaco has been found dead from a gunshot wound outside Kyiv, as authorities detain a military intelligence officer and a former police official in connection with the plot.
A suspect silenced
A woman suspected of planting the explosive device that severely injured the exiled oligarch and cost his companion both her legs has been discovered shot dead near the Ukrainian capital, according to a report by Ukrainska Pravda citing law enforcement sources.
The suspect, identified in Interpol documents as 39-year-old Ukrainian national Anastasia Berezovska, was found lifeless in the Kyiv region. Sources told the publication that she had been killed by a gunshot. Berezovska had been outside Ukraine from March 22, 2025 until July 1, 2026, a timeline that spans the period of the Monaco attack before her apparent return and death.
The Monaco attack
The assassination attempt occurred on June 29 in the wealthy principality of Monaco. An explosion ripped through a residential building, seriously wounding Yermolaev, who renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 to become a Cypriot national. A woman accompanying the oligarch suffered catastrophic injuries, losing both legs, and his teenage son was also hurt. All three victims remain hospitalised.
Following the blast, Monegasque authorities launched an international manhunt for Berezovska, who was wanted on charges including “attempted murder, the placement of an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.”
Intelligence links emerge
In a deepening of the mystery, Ukrainska Pravda’s source disclosed that two men have been detained in connection with the case: a serving officer of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) and a former law enforcement official. The precise role the detained individuals allegedly played in the plot has not yet been detailed.
The target, Vadym Yermolaev, was placed under personal sanctions by President Volodymyr Zelensky in late December 2023, further complicating the profile of a man who had already severed formal ties with his country of birth. The discovery of the suspect’s body now shifts the focus of the investigation back onto the streets near Kyiv, blending a story of international intrigue with a silent, violent conclusion in the city’s outskirts.
