A former Ukrainian security services officer, Vitalii Zhykovych, has claimed that senior members of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) ordered a bomb attack in Monaco in June. The attack targeted Ukrainian-born businessman Vadym Yermolayev.
Speaking from prison in Kyiv, Zhykovych alleged that an active-duty HUR officer, Vladyslav Reut, proposed the operation against Yermolayev. Zhykovych stated he understood it to be an official mission, authorised and approved by Reut's superiors in HUR.
Yermolayev, his 13-year-old son, and his partner were injured in the blast. Zhykovych describes Anastasia Berezovska, who was captured on surveillance video planting the bomb, as his "agent." He alleges Reut communicated directly with Berezovska and provided her with explosives, despite Zhykovych's initial refusal to send her for the bombing.
A week after the bombing, Berezovska's body was found with gunshot wounds to the head in woods west of Kyiv. Zhykovych and Reut were arrested and accused of her murder, with each blaming the other for the shooting. Zhykovych denies sending Berezovska to kill or killing her himself.
Zhykovych has also alleged that Reut told him the bombing was in retaliation for Yermolayev "funding the annexation of Crimea," which Zhykovych understood to mean paying taxes to Russia from businesses in Russian-occupied Crimea. Yermolayev has repeatedly denied any remaining business interests linked to Russia.