A news item that occurred in the most secure principality in Europe may reveal behind the scenes of the war in Ukraine. Monday June 29, the explosion of a parcel bomb in front of a building in Monaco injured a wealthy Ukrainian businessman, Vadim Ermolaev, his partner, whose life prognosis remains in jeopardy, and their 13-year-old son, who was more lightly affected. The suspect, filmed by video surveillance, fled on foot towards Beausoleil (Alpes-Maritimes), a neighboring French commune.
Oligarchs who left Ukraine illegally
The prosecution opened an investigation into attempted assassination and ruled out the terrorist hypothesis, favoring the possibility of a settling of scores against this real estate and agri-food magnate. Prince Albert II, for his part, spoke of a “heinous crime” which is a stain on a Monaco renowned for its security.
The affair also highlights the “Monaco battalion”, of which Vadim Ermolaev is a part. This nickname, invented by the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, then became widely used to designate Ukrainian businessmen and political leaders who fled their country at the start of the Russian invasion, in February 2022. Many left illegally, while martial law then prohibited men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the territory, because they could be mobilized.
In 2022, the Ukrainian authorities identified around 80 people in Monaco in this situation. Among them were the Surkis brothers, former leaders of Ukrainian football, the billionaire Viktor Pintchouk and several former deputies close to Moscow. Today, this number has decreased significantly. In Le Parisien, the Ukrainian ambassador to France now mentions a group of 20 to 30 individuals.
Banking security and secrecy
Monaco did not wait for the war in Ukraine to attract large fortunes, levying neither income tax nor wealth tax. It benefits from a reputation for security but also banking discretion. Enough to attract Ukrainians looking for refuge. The resident Ukrainian community thus increased from 99 people in 2016 to 285 in 2023, according to the Monegasque Institute of Statistics (IMSEE). Prince Albert II, for his part, condemned the Russian invasion, but, unlike other countries such as the United Kingdom, he did not sanction the Russian residents of the principality, careful not to offend this very wealthy clientele.
Targeted by the parcel bomb, Vadim Ermolaev, 23rd Ukrainian fortune according to Forbes, is far from being the only millionaire “refugee” on the Rock. Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and owner of the Shakhtar Donetsk football club, reportedly bought a five-story apartment in Monaco in April for 471 million euros. This acquisition sparked a flood of criticism in Ukraine, in the midst of war.
The story of Vadim Ermolaev quickly went beyond a simple local incident, it is part of a broader context. Already in 2025, the Hungarian director Ábrahám Róbert devoted a documentary to the subject, Monaco hadtest, on the lifestyle of these exiles. It was publicly recommended by former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has never hidden his pro-Moscow tropism.
After the attack, certain information relays close to Russia put forward another theory: that of the involvement of the Ukrainian secret services. This hypothesis is not based on any proof and the Monegasque prosecutor’s office has never mentioned it. He always favors the track of a settling of scores linked to organized crime.
