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 with gunshot wounds to the head, according to the SBU.
Two people including a current officer within Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) have been detained on suspicion of murder.
Berezovska arrived in Ukraine two days after the attack on 1 July, the SBU said in its statement, citing law enforcement sources.
There, she communicated with her family and two men – a former law enforcement officer and a current officer in the MoD’s main intelligence directorate.
The two men were investigated as possible accomplices in the Monaco attack based on information that 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.
It continued: “During the search of the former law enforcement officer’s home, a basement room resembling a torture chamber was found.
“Both suspects were detained on suspicion of committing murder with premeditation by a group of individuals.”
An investigation is ongoing with the “personal assistance” of the head of the intelligence directorate Oleg Ivashchenko.
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 are 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.
By BBC News
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