Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravtsjenko on Friday released dramatic CCTV footage showing the attack on the Ukrainian-born oligarch Vadym Jermolajev on 29 June.
He, his partner and his 13-year-old son were all wounded when the bomb exploded at the entrance to the exclusive apartment building in Monaco where he lived.
Shot and killedA 39-year-old Ukrainian woman, Anastasija Berezovska, was shortly afterwards placed on an Interpol wanted list, suspected of having planted the bomb.
On 7 July, the Ukrainian security service SBU announced that she had been found shot dead near Kyiv.
An officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence service (HUR) was arrested and is said to have confessed during questioning to killing her with the assistance of a former Ukrainian police officer. Both are being held in pre-trial detention.
Allegedly planned the attackThe two are also suspected of having planned the bomb attack on Jermolajev in Monaco, according to the Prosecutor General.
– It has been possible to recover one of the most important pieces of evidence that the suspects attempted to destroy, says Kravtsjenko.
According to him, the surveillance camera that filmed the bomb in Monaco had been installed by the two suspects, who wanted confirmation that the attack they had commissioned had been carried out.
The recording was deleted, but according to Kravtsjenko, the SBU managed to recover it.
Accuses HURJermolajev’s lawyers this week accused HUR, in a letter reproduced by French media, of being behind the attack and are demanding that the billionaire be given protection.
In the letter, they write that Jermolajev remains in hospital with injuries from the attack, that his partner suffered permanent injuries and that his teenage son suffered burns and fractures in the explosion.
Ukraine imposed sanctions on Jermolajev in 2023 on the grounds that he had, through his business activities, assisted the Russian occupying power.
Jermolajev has previously stated that he has renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and is now a Cypriot citizen.
Stories such as this are extremely damaging to the reputation of Ukraine’s leadership, and it does not help that Western European governments never direct criticism at Kyiv. People in Zelenskyj’s inner circle, such as his powerful chief of staff Andrij Jermak, have had to resign, suspected of corruption, and what Jermak knew, Zelenskyj also knows. (NTB) 18 July
