On the evening of June 29, a powerful explosion tore through a residential building in Monaco, injuring Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev and two other people.
Investigators believe an unidentified man left a backpack packed with explosives and metal shrapnel in the building’s lobby before the blast occurred, as reported by Bloomberg.
The explosion injured three people in total, including a man and a woman between the ages of 50 and 60 and a 13-year-old boy, according to media reports.
French newspaper Nice-Matin reported that the woman lost both legs in the blast, while Yermolaiev himself suffered burns and shrapnel wounds.
Monaco Prosecutor General Stephane Thibault confirmed on July 1 that investigators are treating the incident as attempted murder, with the search for suspects still ongoing.
According to French newspaper Le Figaro, investigators in Monaco are also pursuing a lead suggesting Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, may have been behind the attack.
Yermolaiev is the founder of the Alef trading and manufacturing group and one of the largest real estate developers in Dnipro, with businesses spanning construction, agriculture, mining, and logistics.
In 2020, Forbes Ukraine ranked him the country’s 23rd-richest entrepreneur, with various media estimates before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine placing his net worth at more than $200 million.
Yermolaiev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017 and obtained Cypriot citizenship, citing dissatisfaction with Ukraine’s judicial and tax systems as his reason for doing so.
On December 23, 2023, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy imposed personal sanctions on Yermolaiev for 10 years under a decision by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, including asset freezes and limits on financial transactions.
The SBU stated that Yermolaiev’s business activities in Russian-occupied Crimea were the basis for those sanctions, alleging his companies continued operating after 2014 and re-registered under Russian law.
By paying millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian state, those companies allegedly contributed financially to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, according to Ukrainian security services.
One of the sanctioned entities is Alef-Vinal-Crimea, which manages Crimean operations of Alef-Vinal, described as one of Ukraine’s largest alcoholic beverage producers, a group Yermolaiev is said to control.
Yermolaiev has publicly denied the allegations, stating he did not act in Russia’s interests and that the sanctions imposed against him are unfounded.
The businessman was also named in August 2022 by Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda as part of what journalists called the “Monaco Battalion,” a network of Ukrainian businesspeople and oligarchs who settled on the French Riviera during the war.
In December 2025, Yermolaiev’s son Artur was arrested in Cyprus and extradited to Estonia in connection with the Milton Group, an international online investment fraud network, where he pleaded guilty, paid 8.5 million euros in compensation, and received a five-year suspended sentence.
Media reports have discussed potential motives for the Monaco attack, including Yermolaiev’s ties to former business partners in Russian-occupied Ukraine, alleged connections to Russian organized crime, and a possible link to his son’s criminal case.
None of those theories has been officially confirmed by Monaco’s authorities, who have not yet publicly stated that Yermolaiev was the intended target.
This attack is not the first high-profile incident in Europe targeting influential Ukrainians, following the May 2025 killing of former politician and lawyer Andrii Portnov, who was shot dead in Spain.
Portnov had close ties to the regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, underscoring a broader pattern of violence against prominent Ukrainian figures across Europe.
