A Ukrainian woman suspected of being behind the bomb attack on Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Yermolaiev has been found shot dead near Kyiv, Ukrainian prosecutors said. Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was discovered at around 11pm local time on Monday. Prosecutors also detained an employee of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, who claimed to have killed the woman together with another suspect, reportedly a law enforcement officer.
The woman was suspected of a parcel bombing in Monaco targeting Yermolaiev, which injured a woman and child in what police said was a targeted attack. The trio were said to be ‘returning home peacefully’ in the early evening on Monday when the attack took place. CCTV footage appeared to show 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 neighbouring French town Beausoleil.
However, French authorities later said the suspect was a woman disguised as a man. The two adults injured in the bombing were rushed to hospital in a critical condition, with the woman having both her legs amputated. Prosecutors said at the time that it was not believed to be the work of only one person, without giving information on any further suspects.
The picture of Anastasiia Berezovska was first released by Interpol. Prosecutor Stephanie Thibault praised Monaco’s police forces and ‘effective international criminal cooperation, both police and judicial’, which made it possible ‘to identify, in a particularly short time, the person suspected of having carried out the attack’. Berezovska used a car with a German licence plate to travel through Italy and several other European countries, with her last official residence being in Germany.
The motive for the attack remains shrouded in mystery, with several competing claims online. The head of anti-corruption organisation Public Control speculated that Yermolaiev’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.
Yermolaiev has denied the allegations. French investigators believe the attack may have been orchestrated by criminal networks linked to the case, which has been closely linked to Russia, with Chechen criminals known to be behind many of the scams. In a separate incident, Ihor Komarov’s son was kidnapped by Chechen gangsters in Bali and his body was found dismembered on the beach, CBS News reported.
However, police have not suggested a link between the Monaco explosion and Chechen gangsters.
