Suspect in Monaco explosion that left Ukrainian billionaire and lover ‘critical’ pictured

The suspect in a ‘deliberate’ explosion that left a Ukrainian oligarch ‘fighting for his life’ has been pictured.

Vadim Ermolaev, 58, who is also known as Vadym Yermolaiev, was in a critical condition after a backpack of explosives was planted inside a luxury Monaco apartment where he was staying.

Ermolaev was with his ‘lover’, 46-year-old Anna Nasobina, and his 13-year-old son at the time. Nasobina needed to have both of her legs amputated.

Following the bombing on June 29, the suspect was described as being around 30 years old and believed to have disguised herself to appear male.

Now, Interpol has released an image of Anastasiia Berezovska, who is suspected of being behind the attack.

Authorities believe she was working with accomplices, and a warrant for her arrest has been issued.

She is wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.

The red notice, accompanied by a photo, says the 39-year-old has dark hair and a tattoo, possibly of a snake, on her right arm from the shoulder to the elbow.

She has Ukrainian nationality and can speak German.

However, Ukrainian sources have also suggested that she could have been born in Kazakhstan, holding a Russian passport and living in Crimea, possessing Ukrainian documents so she could easily live in the European Union.

Berezovska is reportedly pro-Vladimir Putin and is known for her ties to organised crime.

Police have said: ‘She is armed and dangerous and thought to be in the company of accomplices.

‘She should be approached with extreme caution.’

With Berezovska’s whereabouts currently unknown, it has been suggested that she could have already escaped as far as the Balkans, making it to France, then Italy.

She was allegedly seen on CCTV, wearing a black hat, tracksuit, white jeans, and trainers, dropping off bags shortly before the blast at around 9pm on Monday.

The backpack was believed to have been full of nuts and bolts, with the Monaco prosecutor claiming the person responsible for planting it then used a remote control to detonate.

A suspect likely used a car with a German registration plate.

In the immediate aftermath of the blast at the residential block in the La Rousse district, one fellow resident said it sounded as if ‘thunder was coming from behind the mountains’.

Having lived in the principality for 20 years, he added to The Sun that the attack was especially shocking, as ‘there’s nowhere safer in the world’ and ‘things like this have never happened in Monaco before’.

Meanwhile, a horrified witness recalled seeing Nasobina with her ‘feet missing’ before she, along with Ermolaev and his teenage son, was rushed to a hospital in Nice.

Silvano Ippolito, who lives across from the building, told BFM TV: ‘She was slumped over, covered in blood.’

He called for his wife, who is a doctor and was able to intervene ‘very quickly, before the emergency services arrived, to apply tourniquets and perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation’ as Nasobina was ‘losing consciousness’.

It was originally thought that Ermolaev’s wife, who is also named Anna, was injured in the explosion, but it was clarified that the 56-year-old was abroad at the time.

Ippolito also described seeing a man staggering out of the building, blood-soaked. The staircase collapsed as he tried to walk down, so he fell onto Ippolito’s wife and a firefighter.

There was a young boy ‘lying on the ground’, too, ‘covered in blood’, as someone tried to help him.

While injured, Ermolaev’s son was less severely hurt, so he can help investigators and tell them ‘exactly what he saw’.

Speaking afterwards, Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco, said: ‘It appears that the family was specifically targeted.’

As per surveillance footage, he added that the suspect ‘had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims’.

Prince Albert II further called the attack a ‘heinous crime’ and ‘a shock to the entire Monegasque community’.

Ermolaev is a real estate mogul and the 23rd richest man in Ukraine, as of 2020.

The tycoon was sanctioned in 2023 for selling alcohol in Russian-occupied Crimea.

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