Interpol names Ukrainian woman as suspect in Monaco bombing

Anastasiia Berezovska is named as the chief suspect responsible for injuring Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and son.

Interpol has identified a Ukrainian woman as the main suspect in a bomb attack in Monaco that reportedly targeted a Ukrainian tycoon with links to Russia, according to officials.

The police organisation named Anastasiia Berezovska, ۳۹, on Friday as the chief suspect in an Interpol Red Notice posted on its website seeking her arrest.

The notice said that she was being sought by Monaco for attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent and criminal conspiracy.

Monaco authorities have not identified any of the three people wounded in Monday’s explosion at an apartment building entrance, but said that they are a family and appear to have been specifically targeted.

Media reports named Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and son as the wounded.

Yermolaiev has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago and was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in ۲۰۲۳ for his ties to Russia.

His partner was still in a critical condition, prosecutors said on Friday, also mentioning two other “collateral victims” who were slightly injured in the attack.

Morgan Raymond, the deputy prosecutor in Monaco, said the bomb was detonated from a distance, using a remote control. The remains of the bomb are being analysed in France, he said.

He added that the suspect was initially identified as a heavily built person appearing to be male, wearing a dark long-sleeved top, light-coloured shorts and a black bucket hat. A broader review of CCTV footage from previous days and testimony from a witness revealed that the suspect was in fact a woman disguised as a man.

The judicial investigation also focused on whether the suspect had accomplices or acted on behalf of someone else.

“The relative sophistication of the explosive device and the modus operandi suggest that the person who planted the device did not act alone,” Raymond said.

Two male individuals were taken into police custody as part of the investigation, but both were subsequently released.

Investigators also identified a rented vehicle fitted with German license plates used by the suspect in Monaco. The suspect’s escape route from France and then across several European countries to her country of residence was traced.

Raymond said that her last known address is in Germany, “a country with which judicial cooperation is particularly active”.

German criminal police issued a statement saying they had searched the rented flat and car of a ۳۹-year-old Ukrainian woman, without naming her, as part of the investigation.

“Evidence was secured which will be handed over to the Monegasque authorities,” they said, adding: “The wanted woman is currently on the run.”

The attack shocked the country situated on the Mediterranean coast, known for its high concentration of wealthy residents. Monaco’s Prince Albert II described it as “an odious act” and said all public services were mobilised to ensure security.

Ukraine is believed to have carried out attacks and targeted killings of Russian figures over the course of the war, although those attacks have largely been confined to Ukrainian or Russian territory.

In December ۲۰۲۴, Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for killing the head of nuclear, biological and chemical military protection forces for the Russian military.

Western intelligence officials have recently said that Russia has ramped up a campaign of targeted killings since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February ۲۰۲۲.