Woman suspected of Monaco bomb attack found dead in Ukraine

The woman suspected of carrying out a parcel bombing in Monaco which injured a sanctioned Ukrainian multi-millionaire and his family has been found dead, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has said.

A cross-border manhunt had been launched for Anastasiia Berezovska, a Ukrainian woman who officials believed had fled the wealthy city-state after planting the bomb in the entrance hall of an apartment building on 29 June.

The 39-year-old’s body was found buried in a forest in the Kyiv region with gunshot wounds to the head, according to the SBU and Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

Two people, including a current officer within Ukraine’s military intelligence service, have been charged over her murder.

Berezovska arrived in Ukraine two days after the attack on 1 July, the SBU said in its statement, citing law enforcement sources.

Two suspects met Berezovska in a car on a highway in the Kyiv region two days later, the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general told the BBC.

“The victim traveled a certain distance with them, after which she was killed.”

The SBU said she had communicated with her family and two men after entering Ukraine – a former law enforcement officer and a current officer in Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, an agency of the Ministry of Defence.

The two men were investigated as possible accomplices in the Monaco attack based on information they repeatedly transferred funds to Berezovska’s “crypto and bank accounts”.

The intelligence officer subsequently confessed to Berezovska’s murder and said he had done so with “another suspect”, the agency said.

Both men have since been charged with “intentional murder committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons”.

The SBU said a basement room “resembling a torture chamber” had also been found during a search of the former law enforcement officer’s home in the Kyiv region.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general said it had “no evidence” the room had been involved in Berezovska’s case and that it “simply reflect[s] the profile of one of the suspects”.

His office released a video of the room, which showed a mat dotted with what appear to be small spots of blood. Two axes, a pickaxe, tarpaulin spread on the floor and a large bag are also visible.

Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond said Berezovska had spent days casing out the residence and was “disguised as a man” during the attack last Monday.

Three people were injured, two of them seriously, when a package exploded just as they entered the building shortly after 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

Berezovska was believed to have fled in a hire car to Italy and onwards to Germany – where special forces searched an apartment rented by a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman “currently on the run” in the central state of Hesse on Thursday, police said.

Interpol issued a red notice alerting police worldwide that she was a fugitive wanted for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent and criminal conspiracy on Friday.

The SBU said Ukrainian authorities had shared all available information with officials in Monaco, with who its prosecutor general was in “close co-operation”.

Law enforcement authorities were working to identify “other suspects” in the attack, it added.

Authorities in Monaco have not confirmed the victims’ identities, but local media reported Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and his 13-year-old son had been targeted.

Yermolaiev, a real estate developer, was named the 39th richest Ukrainian by Forbes magazine in 2020 with a reported fortune of $230m (£173.8m).

He has major interests in wine and alcohol in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, and has been the subject of sanctions imposed by the government in Kyiv since 2023.

He is a Cypriot citizen, having renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019, and has been living in Monaco.

Correction – 7 July 2026: An earlier version of this story said investigators believed Anastasiia Berezovska had been held in a basement belonging to one of the suspects. Ukrainian authorities later clarified there was no evidence the room was involved in Berezovska’s murder, and they had released footage of it “to reflect the profile of one of the suspects”.