On June 29, 2026, a brazen attack shattered the measured life of Monaco and highlighted pressing security issues. The victim of an explosion at the entrance to a residential complex was Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev. Along with him, his partner Anna Nasobina and their 13-year-old son were injured. While the businessman himself escaped with injuries, Anna’s condition proved critical, and doctors had to amputate both of her legs.
The assassination attempt itself was the result of the businessman’s conflict of interests with his homeland, where he has been on sanctions lists since 2023. The chain of events that followed – from escape through Italy to the mysterious death of the perpetrator in Ukraine – turned this story into a political thriller.
From a refugee center in Hesse to a terrorist
French investigators quickly established the identity of the suspect, 444 said. She turned out to be 37-year-old Ukrainian citizen Anastasia Berezovskaya. Since October 2022, Berezovskaya had been living in Germany, in an asylum seekers’ center in the town of Hofheim (Hesse). She was receiving social benefits, attending language courses, and raising a seven-year-old son.
According to Interpol, she used a car with German license plates to carry out the attack. The explosive device, packed with metal fragments for maximum damage, was concealed in a backpack. After the detonator went off, Berezovskaya, without covering her tracks, fled towards Italy; her car was later found abandoned in a parking lot in Frankfurt am Main with personal belongings inside.
Mysterious death and arrests in Kyiv
An unexpected turn in the investigation came a few days after the explosion. Anastasia Berezovskaya’s body was found near Kyiv. Ukrainian authorities promptly announced the arrest of two suspects in her murder. They turned out to be active Ukrainian intelligence officer Vladislav Reut and former police officer Alexander Zhikovich.
Relatives of the deceased said they learned of her involvement in the assassination attempt only from social media. They expressed confidence that the woman may have been manipulated or coerced into taking part in the operation, possibly by threatening her child, who was staying with his grandmother in Ukraine at the time of the events.
Direct accusations against the intelligence service and the version of a corruption report
Two weeks after the attack, Vadim Ermolaev himself, still recovering from his injuries, made a sensational statement. He directly linked the assassination attempt to the activities of Ukrainian special services.
“Based on the information provided to us during the investigation, we are convinced that active officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine are directly involved in this assassination attempt. The operation was not limited to the perpetrators but included GUR officers, some of whom are close to the current or former leadership of the service,” Ermolaev stated.
Two main versions of the motive are now being discussed. The first, voiced by former French foreign intelligence officer and co-founder of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center (ESISC) Claude Moniquet, says that the reason was Ermolaev’s intention to deliver a revealing report on corruption in Ukraine to the European Parliament.
The second version links the assassination attempt to internal political struggles in Kyiv. Allegedly, Ermolaev might have been financing a potential presidential campaign of former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny, which did not suit the current president of Ukraine.
A threat from within
Initially, the press, including Le Figaro, considered the version of the involvement of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). But the arrest of a GUR officer in the case of the murder of the perpetrator herself shifted the focus towards military intelligence.
Previously, Ukraine carried out targeted special operations against senior Russian military personnel and officials on its own territory or disputed territories. But the terrorist attack in the center of Monaco showed that Ukrainian displaced persons, whom Europe had been accepting for five years as victims of war, could turn into a real security threat to EU countries. This incident forced European intelligence agencies to take a fresh look at migration programs and the activity of foreign intelligence services on their soil.
