Sanctioned Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev accuses Ukrainian military intelligence officers of organizing the attempt on his life in Monaco

Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev says officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry organized the attempt on his life in Monaco.

He made the claim in a letter distributed by Dynasty Law & Investment, the Ukrainian law firm that represents him, and quoted by the French newspaper Nice-Matin. He wrote that the evidence available to him left no doubt that serving GUR officers were directly involved in the assassination attempt.

The operation, Yermolaiev wrote, went beyond the people who carried out the attack and the organizers on the ground: other GUR officers were involved as well, some of them close to the service’s current or former leadership. He gave no further details.

Yermolaiev also called on Monaco, France, and Ukraine, along with the relevant international organizations, to protect his family, witnesses, lawyers, and others connected to the case until all those responsible — including whoever ordered the crime — had been identified and held accountable.

Intelligence services that use their resources to organize a killing on European soil, he warned, threaten international security and public trust in state institutions.

In the letter, Nice-Matin reported, Yermolaiev thanked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his personal attention to the case and for the help already given. “This support means a great deal to us,” he wrote.

Update. GUR representative Andriy Yusov rejected Yermolaiev’s accusations, calling them subjective “political statements” that are harmful to the investigation.

The attempt on Yermolaiev’s life took place on June 29. A bag containing a bomb was left outside the entrance of the Monaco apartment building where he lived; it detonated as he was entering with his partner and 13-year-old son. All three were injured, and his partner lost both legs.

Several days later, Anastasiia Berezovska emerged as a suspect in the attack. She had arrived in Ukraine on July 1. On July 7, Ukrainian law enforcement reported that Berezovska had been killed. Vladyslav Reut, a serving GUR officer, confessed to her murder and said he had carried it out with Vitalii Zhykovych, a former officer of Ukraine’s Security Service. (Reut later retracted that confession at a court hearing on July 9, saying Zhykovych had fired the shots that killed Berezovska.) Reut said that he had acted on his own initiative and had not told his superiors about his contacts with Berezovska. Ukrainska Pravda, citing sources close to the case, reported that investigators consider Reut and Zhykovych to be the organizers of the attempt on Yermolaiev’s life.