Monaco isn't supposed to be a place where pipe bombs go off. The tiny Mediterranean principality has more security cameras per square meter than almost anywhere else on Earth. Yet, on Monday night, June 29, 2026, an explosive device tore through the quiet entrance of a residential building. It shattered the illusion of absolute safety that the global elite pay millions to enjoy. The target wasn't just anyone. It was Vadim Ermolaev, a 58-year-old ultra-wealthy businessman originally from Ukraine, now carrying a Cypriot passport. He, his partner, and his 13-year-old son were all seriously hurt when they walked right into a trap.
The initial look at the security footage showed a medium-sized man wearing a black bucket hat. He carried a shopping bag, waited on a bench, left a package, and triggered it with a remote control right as the family arrived.
Then came the twist.
Monaco prosecutors just broke the mystery open. It wasn't a man. The suspect is a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman named Anastasiia Berezovska. She wore a disguise to throw off the cops. Interpol has slapped a red notice on her, and European police forces are currently hunting her down. It's a wild story, but it gets deeper. This wasn't a solo job. The deputy prosecutor general of Monaco, Morgan Raymond, made it clear that the evidence points to a coordinated group effort.
You don't pull off a remote-detonated hit in Monaco without serious backing.
Bypassing the Safest State on Earth
People move to Monaco for two reasons. They want to avoid taxes, and they don't want to get kidnapped or killed. The entire city-state is a fortress. Uniformed police wander every corner, and the video surveillance grid is legendary.
Berezovska didn't care. She spent days setting up the hit under the noses of Monaco security.
The investigation revealed she did dry runs. Investigators looking back through the tape found her scouting the location on Friday and Saturday before the blast. She didn't wear the disguise during the scouting trips. That was her mistake. A witness who spoke to her, combined with a meticulous review of the city's camera network, allowed the police to link the woman scouting the building to the "man" in the black bucket hat who dropped the bomb.
The hit was executed with chilling precision. She waited on a nearby bench, holding a simple shopping bag. At exactly 8:58 PM, as Ermolaev and his family returned from a restaurant dinner, she set down the bomb and walked away. The moment they stepped onto the porch, she pressed the button on her remote control.
The explosion was deafening. The family didn't stand a chance of avoiding it.
The aftermath was pure chaos. The blast tore through the entryway of the small building, which sits right on the border with France. Emergency services rushed to the scene, and the police immediately locked down the surrounding blocks. But Berezovska was already gone. She slipped away on foot, crossing the invisible border into the neighboring French town of Beausoleil.
A Cross-Border Escape Route
Once in Beausoleil, she picked up a rental car with German license plates. This tells us a lot about the planning involved. She didn't use a local car. She had an escape vehicle ready to roll.
She drove hard and fast. Her route took her straight across the Italian border. From Italy, intelligence sources indicate she headed toward Switzerland before pushing north into Germany, her last known country of residence.
Monaco (Attack) ➔ Beausoleil (Foot Escape) ➔ Italy (Driving) ➔ Switzerland ➔ Germany
German police moved fast once Monaco issued the international warrants. On Thursday, heavily armed officers raided her registered home in Germany. They didn't find her. She knew the clock was ticking and kept moving. Even though she escaped the dragnet, the German raid wasn't a failure. Investigators seized significant evidence from the property. Those items are currently being handed over to Monaco authorities to trace her network.
The Interpol red notice describes her as a brunette with medium-length hair. She speaks German and has a distinctive tattoo on her upper right arm, likely a snake. That tattoo might be the thing that gives her away. You can change your clothes or put on a hat, but a snake tattoo on your arm is hard to hide when you're running across Europe.
Why Target Vadim Ermolaev
To understand this hit, you have to look at the victim. Vadim Ermolaev is a massive figure in the Ukrainian business world, or at least he was before things soured. He built a fortune in real estate, banking, and asset management. Like many oligarchs, he secured a secondary passport from Cyprus to protect his wealth and move freely.
His relationship with his home country is complicated and dark.
In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree placing Ermolaev under strict national sanctions. The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council targeted him for allegedly maintaining business ties that worked against Ukraine's wartime interests. His assets were frozen, and his operations were restricted. He became a man without a welcoming homeland, choosing to park himself in the safety of Monaco.
Monaco prosecutors are treating this strictly as an attempted assassination and a criminal conspiracy. They explicitly stated they aren't treating this as a terrorist attack. That distinction matters. It means they view this as a targeted, professional hit rather than an act designed to cause ideological terror.
It looks like a message. It looks like a settling of scores.
The Logistics of a Professional Hit Team
Let's look at why the prosecution is certain she didn't act alone.
A successful hit in a foreign country requires heavy logistics. Someone had to source the explosives. Bringing a bomb across international borders in Europe is risky. It's much more likely the device was built or acquired closer to the target zone. Someone had to pay for the rental car in Germany under a name that didn't immediately trigger alarms. Someone had to provide the intelligence on Ermolaev's daily habits, including where he ate dinner and when he would return to his residence.
The disguise itself suggests professional training. Dressing as a man to skew the initial police description is an old intelligence tactic. It buys the operative time. For the first 48 hours, every cop in southern France and northern Italy was looking for a medium-sized man in a black bucket hat. By the time the police realized they were looking for a 39-year-old brunette female, she had already driven through Italy and entered Central Europe.
That 53-hour delay was exactly what she needed to escape the immediate dragnet.
What Happens Next
The hunt for Anastasiia Berezovska is now a massive European priority. With Interpol involved, her details are flagged at every border crossing, airport, and train station in the Schengen zone. The evidence pulled from her German apartment will likely expose her financial backers and the people who helped her procure the vehicle and the explosive device.
If you are tracking this case or looking to understand the security situation in Western Europe, watch the border dynamics between Germany, Switzerland, and France over the coming days. The coordination between Monaco's judicial police, the French internal security services, and Germany's federal police will determine how fast this network falls apart. Expect tighter checks on rental vehicles moving across these borders as authorities look for the remaining members of the hit team.
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