Newly released video captured the moment a parcel bomb exploded in Monaco on June 30, nearly killing Ukrainian tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev and reportedly severing the legs of his girlfriend. The surveillance footage, released by the office of Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko, shows a person leaving an object in a building's entryway shortly before Yermolaiev arrived with his partner and young teenage son.
The suspect, described as wearing a hat and purple sweater, can be seen speaking on the phone and glancing back at Yermolaiev before the blast occurred, knocking the surveillance camera to the ground. The suspect is then seen grabbing the camera and fleeing the scene.
Prosecutors identified the suspect as Anastasiia Berezovska, who was reportedly shot to death three days later after Interpol issued a red notice for her arrest. Ukrainian intelligence officer Vladyslav Reut and his partner, Vitalii Zhykovych, are accused of paying Berezovska with cryptocurrency and cash to carry out the attack. Reut has claimed he killed Berezovska on his own initiative, not under orders from superiors.
Yermolaiev, a real-estate developer sanctioned by Ukraine for alleged business activities in the Russia-annexed Crimea region, has claimed Kyiv's military intelligence agency, known as HUR, was directly involved in the assassination attempt. He stated, "Based on the investigative evidence available to us, we have no doubt that serving officers of the main intelligence directorate of the ministry of defense of Ukraine, commonly known as HUR, were directly involved in this attempted assassination."
Yermolaiev, who stated he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017, did not provide evidence to support his claim. He was living in Monaco with his partner, Anna Nasobina, who reportedly lost both her legs in the bombing. The couple's 13-year-old son also sustained burns and fractures from the blast.
Kravchenko's office stated that attempts were made to destroy the surveillance camera footage, but intelligence experts were able to recover it. The camera installed on the street ahead of the explosion was intended to record the crime and ensure the contract killing was carried out, according to Kravchenko.