The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has confirmed the death of Anastasia Berezovska, who was suspected of organizing a June 29 assassination attempt on Ukrainian billionaire Vadym Yermolaiev in Monaco. The agency’s statement also confirmed that two people had been detained in connection to Berezovska’s death: an active officer of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) and a former law enforcement officer.
Earlier on July 7, Ukrainska Pravda reported the arrests and said Berezovska’s body had been found near Kyiv the previous day.
According to the SBU, Ukrainian law enforcement launched its own investigation after the explosion in Monaco left Yermolaiev, his female companion, and his 13-year-old son seriously wounded. Investigators noted that Berezovska, who had been placed on Interpol’s wanted list, arrived in Ukraine on July 1.
After returning to the country, she was found to have communicated with her family and two other men: the HUR officer and the former law enforcement officer. The two men repeatedly transferred funds to Berezovska’s cryptocurrency and bank accounts, which may indicate their involvement in organizing the Monaco attack, the SBU said.
According to the SBU, during questioning the detained HUR officer admitted that he and his accomplice had killed Berezovska. He said the intelligence agency’s leadership had not been informed of his contacts with Berezovska and that he had acted on his own initiative. During a search of the second suspect’s home, investigators found a basement “resembling a torture room.” Berezovska’s body was found with gunshot wounds to the head after one of the suspects provided information to law enforcement.
The explosion in the entrance of a residential building in Monaco occurred on the evening of June 29. On July 2, it became known that Interpol had issued an arrest warrant for Berezovska, a 39-year-old Ukrainian citizen. Investigators say she remotely detonated the explosive device. Before that, Berezovska allegedly visited the building several times dressed in men’s clothing.
Dnipro native Vadym Yermolaiev is the founder of the Alef trade and industrial corporation and is one of the city’s largest property developers. In 2021, Forbes Ukraine ranked him 45th on its list of the 100 richest Ukrainians, with a fortune of $220 million. According to Ukrainian media, Yermolaiev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 and obtained a Cypriot passport.
In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on Yermolaiev and his company Alef-Vinal-Crimea, which manages the Crimean assets of Alef-Vinal, one of Ukraine’s largest alcohol producers. The firm is best known for producing wine (Zolotaya Amfora and Villa Krim), brandy (Klinkov and Jean-Jacques), and vodka (Green Day). Ukrainian authorities reported that the company operated in Russian-occupied Crimea.
In April, an Estonian court found Yermolaiev’s son Artur guilty of organizing fraudulent call centers in Ukraine. From 2019 to 2022, the call centers earned at least 100 million euros by offering people in various countries nonexistent investment opportunities.
