A bomb exploded in the lobby of the apartment building of Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Iermolaiev in Monaco last Monday, leaving him and two others seriously injured. The attack occurred as Iermolaiev, a woman, and a child were returning to their apartment on Rue Révérend-Père-Louis-Frolla. The suspect, who dropped a suspected parcel bomb in the lobby, had already fled the scene by the time the trio were caught in the explosion.
CCTV footage shows a man in a black jacket, black bucket hat, white shoes, and beige trousers running from the scene moments afterwards, headed in the direction of neighboring French town Beausoleil. An urgent search for the attacker is ongoing, with police treating it as attempted murder, not a terrorist attack. Iermolaiev and the other two victims are being treated for serious injuries at the Pasteur Hospital in Nice.
The woman, initially reported to be Iermolaiev’s wife, had her legs amputated after the blast and is in a life-threatening condition. Iermolaiev, meanwhile, suffered multiple shrapnel wounds after the backpack exploded, which was full of bolts and buckshot. The attack has shocked Monaco, a coastal playground for the rich and famous where violent crime is rare.
The case remains shrouded in mystery, with sources offering various theories for why Iermolaiev, one of Ukraine’s richest men, was targeted. Iermolaiev, 58, is a real estate developer and chairman of Alef, which owns 13 companies operating in agribusiness, development, and the production of construction materials. He has regularly featured in Focus magazine’s annual list of Ukraine’s Top 100 Richest People, with a net worth believed to be in the hundreds of millions of US dollars.
In 2022, he was referred to by Ukrainska Pravda as being a member of the ‘Monaco Battalion’: a group of what the outlet called ‘Ukrainian VIP refugees’ concentrated in Monaco, Monte Carlo, and Nice. One year later, he was sanctioned by Kyiv for alleged collaboration with Russia, accusations he has fiercely denied. The head of anti-corruption organisation Public Control, Denis Selin, speculated that Iermolaiev’s business in the occupied territory could be the cause of the assassination attempt.
However, sources in Ukrainian police have told Ukrainska Pravda that the attack may be linked to his alleged role in a complex separate case involving a fraudulent call centre network in Dnipro. Iermolaiev has denied the allegations. The call-centre case has been closely linked to Russia, with Chechen criminals known to be behind many of the scams which have seen thousands of Russian pensioners defrauded.
Initial reports claiming that Iermolaiev’s wife had been injured later turned out to be false, as it emerged she was not at the building. Iermolaiev’s wife told Suspilne that she was ‘currently in a state of great stress and are actively cooperating with the investigation.’
