Iermolaiev accuses Ukrainian intelligence officers of trying to kill him in Monaco

Businessman Vadym Iermolaiev has accused officers of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) of attempting to assassinate him and called for guarantees of his safety, the French newspaper Nice-Matin reported on July 15.

The Kyiv Independent has requested comment from HUR and will publish its response once it is received. Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said previously that the suspects were operating without the knowledge of HUR's leadership, and that the investigation was being conducted with the personal assistance of Military Intelligence Chief Oleh Ivashchenko.

Nice-Matin cited a letter written by Iermolaiev and published by law firm Dynasty Law & Investment, which represents the businessman’s interests.

Ukrainian businessman Iermolaiev, his wife and their 13-year-old son were injured in an explosion in an apartment building in Monaco on June 29.

The body of Ukrainian citizen Anastasia Berezovska, whom Monaco suspects of carrying out the assassination attempt on Iermolaiev, was found in Ukraine on July 7.

The Ukrainian authorities said that a HUR employee had been charged with murdering Berezovska. The employee has also been investigated as a suspect in the murder attempt on Iermolaiev, they said.

"Based on the evidence from the investigation that has been shared with us, we are convinced that active-duty officers from Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) were directly involved in this attempted assassination,” Iermolaiev said in the letter. “The evidence currently available also suggests that the operation went beyond the direct perpetrators and organizers, involving HUR officers, some of whom are believed to have close ties to the agency's current or former leadership."

He argued that “if serving officers of an intelligence agency used their positions, resources, or networks to orchestrate the attempted murder of a family on European soil, then this is no longer merely a crime against my family” but “a matter of international security and trust in public institutions."

At the same time, Iermolaiev expressed "sincere" gratitude to President Volodymyr Zelensky "for the personal attention he has given this case and for the assistance already provided.”

Iermolaiev emphasized that the statement “is directed neither against Ukraine nor against the Ukrainian people."

“I call on the authorities of Monaco, France, and Ukraine, as well as the relevant international institutions, to ensure the protection of my family, our loved ones, witnesses, our lawyers, and everyone involved in this case until all those responsible — including the person who ordered this crime — have been identified and brought to justice,” he added.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on July 7 that Berezovska, the suspect in the murder attempt on Iermolaiev, arrived in Ukraine on July 1.

They also said that, after returning to Ukraine, Berezovska had been in contact with her family, a former law enforcement officer, and an active officer of Ukraine's military intelligence agency.

“Knowing that both men had repeatedly transferred money to Berezovska via cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts, investigators examined them as possible suspects in the attempted murder in Monaco,” they said.

They also said that the HUR officer had confessed to killing Berezovska together with another suspect and said that he had not informed his superiors about his contacts with Berezovska and had acted on his own initiative.

The Prosecutor General's Office and the SBU said that law enforcement officers had charged both suspects with premeditated murder.

The HUR officer’s name is Yevhen Reut, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Schemes project. He has served in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces since 2022, according to the news outlet.

The other suspect is a former police officer, Schemes reported. The media outlet also said, citing its sources, that he is a former agent of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The SBU said that the suspect, Vitaliy Zhykovych, had been a registered volunteer associate of the SBU from February 2022 until April 2026.

The Security Service said that he "was not a member of the SBU's staff and did not carry out operational activities independently."

Iermolaiev is one of Dnipro’s wealthiest and most influential businesspeople and holds assets in the agribusiness, real estate, construction materials, and medical equipment industries.

He renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017 and has since been solely a Cypriot citizen.

According to the media outlet Ukrainska Pravda, Iermolaiev has lived in Monaco since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on Iermolaiev.

He claimed that the sanctions had been directed against “those who aid Russia's aggression, those who assist it, and those who have chosen the disgraceful path of collaborating with the terrorist state.”

Iermolaiev himself has denied collaborating with Russia.

He had an alcoholic beverage business in Crimea and was accused of controlling it through his proxies after the peninsula’s illegal annexation by Russia in 2014. Iermolaiev denied the accusations.