Ukrainian oligarch’s ‘lover’ loses legs in Monaco explosion

A Ukrainian multimillionaire who was targeted in an ‘assassination’ bid in Monaco was with his London-based ‘lover’ when the bomb went off.

Vadim Ermolaev, 58, who is also known as Vadym Yermolaiev, is ‘fighting for his life’ alongside his son and his ‘lover’ after an explosion in Monaco.

Anna Nasobina, 46, was with Ermolaev when the bomb detonated, it has been confirmed, after initial reports said that Ermolaev’s wife – also named Anna – had been the one injured in the blast.

Anna Ermolaev, 56, was abroad at the time when the bomb went off and told Suspline: ‘We are currently in a state of severe stress and are actively cooperating with the investigation and law enforcement agencies.’

Nasobina, Ermolaev’s alleged lover, describes herself as a ‘London-based’ director who is originally from Dnipro, Ukraine.

Ermolaev was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government in 2023 after he was found to be selling alcohol to Russians in occupied Crimea.

He has denied these accusations, claiming that Russia had seized his grape-growing and cognac enterprise.

Ermolaev took up residence in Monaco as Ukraine was invaded. He was filmed for a documentary living a lavish lifestyle, driving Bentleys, buying megayachts, and luxury villas: a scandal for Ukrainians living at war back home. It appears his gilded exile did not protect him.

CCTV allegedly showed a suspect dropping off bags shortly before the blast at around 10pm on Monday. The backpack was believed to have been full of nuts and bolts.

According to French daily Le Figaro, the attack appears to have been more of ‘warning’ than a deliberate attempt at murder.

Silvano Ippolito, who lives across from the building where the explosion happened, described hearing it and seeing a little boy on the ground being attended to by other people. He then called his wife, a doctor, who provided first aid to the badly wounded woman.

‘She intervened very quickly, before the emergency services arrived, to apply tourniquets and perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as the woman was losing consciousness,’ Ippolito said.

A man came out of the building covered in blood and staggering, he said, and as he tried to go down the stairs, the staircase collapsed, and he fell on Ippolito’s wife and a firefighter, he said.

Russia has a long history of targeting its enemies abroad, and Western intelligence officials have recently said that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

‘It appears that the family was specifically targeted,’ said Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco. He said the suspect ‘had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims,’ according to surveillance footage.

The explosion, which is understood to be ‘deliberate’, destroyed the entrance of the Cuomo Foundation, which is a self-described philanthropic organisation.

It was said to have been left in a bag by a male suspect wearing a black hat, tracksuit, white jeans and trainers.

Police said the suspect was spotted fleeing towards the border in the nearby French town of Beausoleil.

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