Interpol names suspect in Monaco bombing that reportedly wounded Russia-linked tycoon

Interpol on Friday identified a 39-year-old woman from Ukraine as the main suspect in a  bombing in Monaco that is thought to have targeted a Ukrainian tycoon with links to Russia.  

The police organization named Anastasiia Berezovska, who remains at large, in a “red notice” posted on its website — seeking her arrest on charges of attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.

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

Media reports named Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the wounded. He has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago, and he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia.  

A woman and a child were also hurt. One of the victims is still in a life-threatening condition, prosecutors said Friday, also mentioning two other “collateral victims” who were slightly injured in the attack.

The Interpol notice says Berezovska has a tattoo, possibly of a snake, on her right arm from the shoulder to the elbow. It says she was born in Ukraine, has dark hair and speaks German. 

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

He noted that the suspected bomber was initially described 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 redirected the investigation toward a woman disguised as a man.

The Interpol notice includes two photos of a woman wearing a white T-shirt with dark stripes, one of them in a street where she’s holding what appears to be some sort of electronic device, trailing a cable, in her left hand.

The sophistication of the bomb 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 licence plates used by Berezovska in Monaco. Her route after the blast was traced, from France into Italy and then across several European countries to her country of residence. Raymond said that her last known address is in Germany, “a country with which judicial cooperation is particularly active.”

German police, including special forces, on Thursday searched the rented apartment near Frankfurt of a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman in connection with the investigation, police and prosecutors said in a statement Friday.

A vehicle used by the woman also was searched and secured, they added, and evidence will be handed over to authorities in Monaco. They said that the woman is on the run and they can’t give more details at present.

The attack shocked the country on the Mediterranean coast, one of the world’s smallest sovereign states and 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 mobilized to ensure security.

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

In December 2024, 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 2022.