Dramatic surveillance footage has captured the instant a Ukrainian oligarch and members of his family were caught in a bomb blast outside an upscale apartment building in Monaco.
The video, made public today by Ukraine’s prosecutor general, shows the alleged assassination attempt targeting real estate magnate Vadim Ermolaev, also known as Vadym Yermolaiev, along with his mistress Anna Nasobina and their son on June 29.
In the footage, the alleged attacker — believed to be Ukrainian national Anastasiia Berezovska — can be seen moving ahead of the family as they near the entrance of the Sun Palace apartment complex.
Investigators say an explosive device filled with nuts and bolts had been concealed inside a rucksack and placed in the building’s entrance area moments before the family was due to step inside.
A woman matching Berezovska’s description is then seen walking away calmly, apparently speaking on a phone, just as a powerful explosion erupts behind her.
Nasobina, 46, later underwent leg amputations as a result of the blast, while she and Yermolaiev both sustained serious shrapnel injuries and burns. Their 13-year-old son, Ariel, was also hurt in the attack.
Prosecutor general Ruslan Kravchenko said the footage came from a surveillance camera that had been positioned near the crime scene by the “perpetrators” themselves.
According to Kravchenko, those involved attempted to erase the recording, but forensic specialists were able to retrieve the video and release it as part of the ongoing investigation.
This is the moment a Ukrainian property tycoon and his family were blown up in a bomb attack outside a luxury apartment in Monaco
The suspect, believed to be Ukrainian Anastasiia Berezovska, was captured fleeing the scene on CCTV
Vadym Yermolaiev, who was targeted in a bombing in Monaco, today accused Kyiv ’s military intelligence agency of being responsible for the attack
A huge blast is seen in the footage recorded on a surveillance camera before it cuts out
Mr Kravchenko said: ‘Thanks to the professional work of the specialists of the Security Service of Ukraine, one of the key pieces of evidence, which the suspects tried to destroy, was successfully restored.
‘This involves a video recording from the surveillance camera, which the perpetrators had previously installed near the crime scene to obtain confirmation of the order.
‘Despite the fact that this evidence was deleted, the specialists of the SBU were able to restore it.’
Ukrainian citizen Berezovska was identified as the prime suspect for the assassination attempt by Interpol, who called the 39-year-old ‘armed and dangerous’.
Footage from nearby surveillance cameras showed her wearing a black bucket hat and fleeing the scene on foot, before heading across the border to France.
Berezovska was found dead near Kyiv on July 6. Investigators said she had been shot.
She was wanted for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.
Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond said she had been disguised as a man when she allegedly carried out the attack.
The suspect calmly walks off before footage captured on a surveillance camera cuts out due to a huge blast
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Interpol accused Anastasiia Berezovska, a 39-year-old woman from Ukraine, of detonating the bomb
Three Ukrainian nationals including an oligarch fleeing the war against Russia were seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in the centre of Monaco (Pictured: Sun’s Palace on Rue Révérend Père Louis Frolla, where the bomb detonated)
Vladyslav Reut, a current officer with Hur, was charged with her murder and appeared in court last week alongside Vitalii Zhykovych, his co-defendant.
Zhykovych worked until recently for Kyiv’s SBU security service. Both men have denied guilt.
While Reut initially admitted to killing Berezovska, he later retracted his confession and blamed Zhykovych, whose lawyer denied the allegation.
Yermolaiev today accused Kyiv’s military intelligence agency of being responsible for the attack on him and his family.
‘Based on the investigative evidence available to us, we have no doubt that serving officers of the main intelligence directorate of the ministry of defence of Ukraine, commonly known as Hur, were directly involved in this attempted assassination,’ Yermolaiev said in a statement released by his lawyers.
He did not provide evidence for the allegation, however.
There were suspicions the bombing could be related to a network of fraudulent call centres in Dnipro, Ukraine, allegedly used to carry out large-scale financial scams across Europe.
The family is alleged to have played a significant role in the scheme, with the oligarch’s name reportedly at the centre of a sprawling pan-European investigation into clandestine call centres operating out of Ukraine.
Anna Nasobina, his mistress, is understood to have lost both legs in the explosion
Vladyslav Reut appeared in a Kyiv court last week over the murder of Anastasiia Berezovska
According to sources, the so-called ‘boiler room’ operations defrauded thousands of investors in Germany, Estonia and Ukraine of more than €100m (£86m) between 2019 and 2022, through fake cryptocurrency investment schemes.
The network also allegedly sold fraudulent divorce advice to unsuspecting victims.
Yermolaiev, a property developer, named by Forbes magazine in 2020 as the 39th richest Ukrainian, has a fortune of USD 230million (GBP 172million).
Kyiv has sanctioned him since 2023 over interests in wine and alcohol in Russia-occupied Crimea.
He described how Nasobina had suffered ‘catastrophic and irreversible injuries’ while their son sustained burns, fractures and other serious injuries.
‘I remain in intensive care and am only now beginning the long process of recovery,’ he added.
‘This was not a warning. It was an attempt to kill not only me, but my family as well.’
The explosion was so powerful that it tore through steel railings and destroyed stone steps outside their property, he said.
