Suspected Bomber Murdered in Ukraine; Kyiv Intel Agencies Implicated

The case of a suspected bomber accused of targeting a Ukrainian oligarch has taken another murky turn, after details of her subsequent murder were revealed in court with evidence suggesting the involvement of Kyiv’s intelligence agencies.

French police last week named Anastasia Berezovska as the person captured on CCTV leaving a rucksack outside a Monaco apartment block. It blew up, injuring the Ukrainian businessman VadymIermolaiev as he emerged from the building with his partner and their 13-year-old child.

Prosecutors said that Berezovska, 39, who had disguised herself as a man, fled in a car with German registration plates, crossing into France and then Italy.

On 1 July, she travelled to Ukraine, catching a bus to her home town of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv. Officials announced on Tuesday that her body had been found in woods near the capital.

According to Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency, Berezovska was met by two men, who had made payments to her bank and crypto accounts. One of them, Vladyslav Reut, appeared in court on Thursday, accused of her murder. Reut identified his alleged accomplice as Vitaliy Zhykovych, a former Kyiv region policeman.

Ukrainian media reported that Reut, 33, studied law at the national university in Kyiv, and worked for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency. He served in unit A2772, a training centre for special operations forces, Radio Liberty reported.

Appearing in a Kyiv court on Thursday, Reut claimed Zhykovych was responsible for Berezovska’s cold-blooded killing. The two men took her at gunpoint to a forest near the village of Yuriv, 60km (40 miles) west of the capital.

“Zhykovych fired the first shot at her in the back of the head. She fell down. He came up and fired another shot. I was standing a few metres away at that moment,” Reut told the judge.

He said four shots were fired before Zhykovych forced him to dig a hole, took all of Berezovska’s personal belongings and removed her trainers. He added: “I will insist on taking a polygraph to prove my innocence.”

Zhykovych’s lawyer, Anatoliy Ivanov, said his client denied the allegations.

The SBU said it found Berezovska’s body after the men confessed and its officers recovered bullet casings from the forest.

It also published grainy footage of what was described as a “torture chamber” in the basement of Zhykovych’s home in the town of Bilogorodka. Investigators later clarified that Berezovska was not tortured before her woodland murder.

Given the connection with Ukrainian military intelligence, the case is embarrassing for Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even if – as officials say – the two men were acting alone. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, urged Zelenskyy to get to the bottom of the shady affair, and to punish those responsible.

Responding to a question from the Guardian, Zelenskyy said he expected to receive “further reports” in the next few days about the “widely reported” incident in Monaco. “I will update the public,” he promised.

Mykhailo Tkach, an investigative journalist with Ukrainska Pravda, said: “It would be hard to imagine a worse scenario. It will be very difficult to explain whether certain government officials – in particular from the GUR – were involved. It is obvious that an explanation will be required at the highest level.”

In 2023, Ukraine imposed personal sanctions on Iermolaiev, one of Ukraine’s richest citizens, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $220m (£164m).

The SBU accused him of continuing to trade alcohol in occupied Crimea and paying millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian treasury. Iermolaiev, 58, described the charges as “absolutely surreal” and said he donated money to Ukraine’s military.

Iermolaiev’s son, Artur, was accused of creating a criminal organisation engaged in telephone fraud in his father’s home city of Dnipro. According to Estonian investigators, Artur and three other defendants set up fraudulent call centres. He received a suspended sentence, paid €8.5m (£7.2m) and left Estonia shortly afterwards.

One source who knows Iermolaiev socially said the bombing in Monaco and Berezovska’s subsequent murder were criminal rather than political acts.

“Vadym or members of his family didn’t want to pay someone,” they suggested. The source suggested the dispute was over protection money, adding: “The woman was disposable.”

Details of Berezovska’s life are still emerging. She had been staying in Frankfurt, where German police last week searched her apartment. Before that, she had lived in Zhytomyr, where she made a living from breeding dogs. In 2021 a court in the city reportedly found her guilty of petty hooliganism. According to a ruling, she had “insulted another woman while intoxicated, used obscene language and pushed her”.

The speed of the suspects’ arrests has surprised observers, with the SBU directly blaming an employee from the rival GUR agency. Some have speculated this reflects animosity between the two organisations.

There are also unanswered questions as to how Berezovska managed to cross back into Ukraine, and whether or not she acted alone in Monaco.

In a statement, Ukraine’s state border service said she entered the country “lawfully” on 1 July, via a regular border crossing point.

It said the French authorities had not issued a warrant at that time for her arrest. “During her border control checks, no database alerts – including those from Interpol – indicated that she was wanted,” it said.

In Kyiv, the mysterious events have raised concerns about damage to Ukraine’s reputation.

“I hope it will not have a serious impact. But our allies deserve an explanation,” said the parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Merezhko. “The unusual thing is that the perpetrators were caught so quickly. That could be interpreted as evidence of a swift and effective operation by our law enforcement agencies.”