With a serving Ukrainian military intelligence officer in custody, the alleged bomber dead and crucial evidence split between Monaco and Ukraine, businessman Vadym Yermolaiev has appealed directly to Prince Albert II and President Volodymyr Zelensky to prevent the investigation into the attempted assassination of his family from being delayed or “stifled”.

Yermolaiev was injured alongside his partner Anna and their 13-year-old son when an explosive device concealed in a bag was detonated at the entrance to their Monaco residence on 29th June.

“This was not a warning. It was an attempted assassination,” he said in a statement dated 22nd July and sent to Monaco Life through his lawyers on 24th July.

The investigation has since extended deep into Ukraine. Anastasiia Berezovska, identified by Monaco’s Prosecutor General as the principal suspect in the bombing, was found shot dead near Kyiv on 7th July. Two men are now in custody over her killing and are also being investigated over the organisation of the Monaco attack.

Against that background, Yermolaiev has called on the prosecutors general of Monaco and Ukraine to establish a formal mechanism for cooperation between the two countries.

Crucial evidence in Monaco and Ukraine

Evidence needed to determine who planned, financed and ultimately ordered the attack lies in both jurisdictions. It includes material from the scene in Monaco, information about the movements and contacts of suspects in Ukraine, and evidence recovered following Berezovska’s death.

“To our knowledge, no official joint working group nor any other effective mechanism of direct cooperation has yet been established between the Monaco prosecutor’s office and the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office,” Yermolaiev said.

He appealed directly to Monaco Prosecutor General Stéphane Thibault and Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko to establish a rapid exchange of evidence, documents, witness statements and investigation files, as well as information concerning the suspects’ movements, contacts and financing.

“Every day of delay plays into the hands of the criminals, the organisers, the coordinators and those who ordered the crime,” he said. “Without this, it is impossible to trace the entire chain, from those who carried it out through to the ultimate instigator.”

The Ukrainian prosecutor proposed creating a joint investigative group after consultations with his Monegasque counterpart on 10th July and said Ukraine was ready to cooperate under international legal procedures. Neither country has publicly confirmed that the proposed group has been formally established.

Military intelligence officer in custody

One of the two men being held in Kyiv over Berezovska’s killing is a serving officer in the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, known as the GUR. The other is a former law enforcement officer.

Ukrainian prosecutors are also investigating the two men over the organisation of the Monaco bombing and Berezovska’s recruitment to carry it out.

Yermolaiev said the involvement of people linked to Ukrainian military intelligence required close and independent scrutiny.

“These circumstances demand an immediate, independent and exhaustive investigation conducted by the competent authorities,” he said. “If certain individuals, whether in office or linked to state structures, have used their status, their connections, their resources or their means to organise the contract killing of a family on European territory, this must be the subject of a thorough investigation — regardless of position, title, administrative affiliation or the politically sensitive nature of the case.”

No Ukrainian institution has publicly addressed the wider implications of a serving GUR officer’s detention beyond the account provided by investigators. Yermolaiev said that silence had created “well-founded fears” that attempts could be made “to stifle the case, to draw it out at length, or to settle it ‘behind the scenes’”.

“This is an international crime. It was committed on European territory. It requires an open, independent, intergovernmental and exhaustive investigation,” he said.

Ukraine says suspects acted independently

The Security Service of Ukraine has said the GUR officer confessed to killing Berezovska but claimed to have acted on his own initiative and without his superiors’ knowledge.

Prosecutors have similarly maintained that the two men acted independently and concealed their conduct from the leadership of the intelligence service. A Kyiv court has ordered both suspects to remain in custody without bail.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Kravchenko subsequently released footage of the Monaco bombing that he said investigators had recovered after the suspects attempted to destroy it. According to the prosecutor general, the recording came from a surveillance camera installed by those behind the attack to confirm that it had been carried out as ordered.

President Zelensky has not publicly commented on the substance of the case, although he said on 9th July that further relevant material would be released.

“Our family continues to fight for Anna’s life”

Yermolaiev’s statement also provides the first update on the family’s condition since Monaco’s prosecutor announced shortly after the attack that one of the three victims had suffered life-threatening injuries.

“Today, our family continues to fight for Anna’s life. We cannot say more than that at this stage,” he said.

The couple’s son remains under treatment and is recovering from his injuries. Yermolaiev said he is also continuing to receive medical care and is not yet well enough to participate fully in public communications.

“I survived by a miracle,” he said.

Warning that the threat remains

Yermolaiev also raised fears that the threat to himself and his family has not gone away simply because the main suspect was killed. “The attack did not achieve its objective. This means that the threat persists,” he said.

He has also called for the ongoing protection of everyone connected to the investigation. “If persons linked to the organisation of the attack are already being eliminated or subjected to violence, this means that witnesses, investigators, lawyers, persons holding information and my family could be under threat,” he said. “We ask that they do not wait for a further tragedy to occur.”

Monaco Life has reached out to Monaco’s Prosecutor General for comment.

See also: 

Vadym Iermolaiev breaks silence after Monaco bombing: “Our survival was nothing short of a miracle”

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Photo of Vadym Yermolaiev taken from X