It took 53 hours to unravel the mystery of the black bob: Monegasque justice launched an international hunt to find a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman suspected of having led the attempted assassination of a businessman of Ukrainian origin on Monday evening, and of not having acted alone.
• Also read: Ukrainian oligarch and his family injured in explosion in Monaco
• Also read: Who is Vadim Ermolaev, the Ukrainian oligarch injured by a parcel bomb in Monaco?
On the Interpol red notice published on Friday, equivalent to an international request for arrest, she is identified as Anastasiia Berezovska, wanted for “attempted assassinations, planting an explosive device on the public highway with criminal intent and criminal association”.
The suspect’s home in Germany was searched on Thursday, but the person concerned was not found, German police said on Friday. On the other hand, “evidence was seized and will be handed over to the Monegasque authorities”.
After the explosion, the suspect left on foot towards the neighboring town of Beausoleil, where she recovered her vehicle to go to Italy then to Germany, her last known country of residence, where the vehicle had been rented, explained Morgan Raymond, deputy attorney general of Monaco, during a press briefing Friday morning.
The evening of the explosion, she waited on a bench before placing an explosive device taken from a shopping bag at the entrance to the targeted building and detonating it at 8:58 p.m. using a remote control when the three main victims, who were returning on foot from a dinner at the restaurant, arrived on the steps.
Spotted on video surveillance images, she was then identified as a man of medium height, his head hidden under a black bucket hat. But a witness interviewed the same evening and the images of his locations carried out on the Friday and Saturday preceding the explosion put investigators on the trail of a woman “made up as a man”.
By going through the video images again, on Sunday they spotted a woman acting in the same way as the man with the bucket hat during his scouting. “Which allowed us to consider that this woman, with mid-length brown hair, of strong build and with an imposing tattoo on her right arm, could be the same person,” explained Mr. Raymond.
From there, investigators were able to find the vehicle she was using and follow her as she fled.
“Exceptional mobilization”
“The relative sophistication of the explosive device and the modus operandi seem to indicate that the person who planted the explosive device did not act alone,” added the prosecutor, without giving more information on possible accomplices or motives.
Two people were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday but their police custody was lifted without further action. The investigation is now continuing as part of a judicial investigation under the direction of several investigating judges.
This identification “in 53 hours is the result of an exceptional mobilization of public security personnel in Monaco”, welcomed their manager, Eric Arella, also referring to the exemplary cooperation with neighboring countries, in particular France.
The Monegasque authorities still refuse to confirm the identity of the victims, but according to consistent sources the attack targeted Vadim Ermolaev, 58, a wealthy businessman originally from Ukraine and now of Cypriot nationality, as well as his partner and his 13-year-old son.
The latter was admitted in a relative emergency to the Lenval children’s hospital in Nice, while the two adults were taken in an absolute emergency to the Nice University Hospital. Mr. Ermolaev’s condition quickly stabilized but his partner’s prognosis remained serious on Friday.
As the woman and the teenager are of Ukrainian nationality, the general prosecutor’s office in kyiv announced the opening of a preliminary investigation into attempted murder.
Residing in Monaco since at least 2021, Vadim Ermolaev has been the subject of sanctions in Ukraine since December 2023 for his commercial activities in Crimea, annexed by Russia.
The targeted man was not the subject of an investigation in Monaco and to the knowledge of local authorities, he was not wanted abroad, according to the principality’s public prosecutor’s office.
This assassination attempt is a thunderclap for Monaco, an ultra-secure Mediterranean micro-state of 2 km2 and barely 40,000 inhabitants, an international and often very wealthy population.
