Ukrainian woman suspected of Monaco parcel bombing was ‘disguised as a man’

The main suspect in a Monaco bomb attack this week that seriously injured a Ukraine-born business tycoon and two of his family members is a Ukrainian woman living in Germany who disguised herself as a man, authorities have said.

Interpol, the international police organisation, on Friday issued a red notice for Anastasiia Berezovska, aged 39, describing her as German-speaking with dark hair and a tattoo, possibly of a snake, on her right arm from the shoulder to the elbow.

The notice – a request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and arrest a suspect – said Berezovska was wanted in Monaco for attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent and criminal conspiracy.

German police ​said on Friday they had searched the rented flat and car of a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman. “Evidence was secured which will be handed over to Monaco authorities,” they said, adding: “The wanted woman is currently on the run.”

Monaco’s deputy prosecutor, Morgan Raymond, said the suspect had been living in Germany and that, given the complexity of the explosive device and the sophisticated nature of the attack, investigators considered it probable she had not acted ‌alone.

Two ​people were arrested ​in Monaco earlier this week but released because no evidence had been found to link them to the attack, he added.

Raymond said the attacker was suspected of leaving a package in the entrance hall of a small apartment building between the Boulevard d’Italie and the Rue Révérend Père Louis Frolla in Monaco, metres from the French border, on Monday evening.

Shortly afterwards, at about 9pm local time, an explosive device went off as three residents – a couple and a 13-year-old child – were entering the building.

The victims’ identities have not been confirmed but police and judicial sources have said they were Vadym Iermolaiev, 58, a wealthy businessman originally from Ukraine and now a Cypriot national, his partner and his son.

The child was admitted in non-critical emergency condition to the Lenval children’s hospital in Nice, while the two adults, whose injuries were considered severe enough to place their lives in danger, were taken to Nice university hospital.

Hospital authorities said the man is no longer in a life-or-death situation, but the woman’s condition has not yet stabilised and remains critical. French media have reported that surgeons amputated both her legs.

Raymond said the attacker had set off the bomb with a remote control when the three victims arrived in the entrance hall, then crossed on foot into France and fled in a car rented in Germany, returning there via several European countries, including Italy.

He said the suspect had initially been identified as a heavily built man, wearing a dark long-sleeved top, light-coloured shorts and a black bucket hat, but CCTV footage and witness testimony led investigators to focus on a woman disguised as a man.

Two photographs included in the Interpol red notice show a woman wearing a white T-shirt with dark stripes. One of them was taken in the street and shows her holding what appears to be some kind of electronic device, with a cable, in her left hand.

Judicial sources have said the suspect had subsequently been spotted in Frankfurt.

Iermolaiev, a resident of Monaco since at least 2021, has been subject to sanctions in Ukraine since December 2023 over his business activities in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Kyiv alleges he had an alcohol business there and continued paying taxes to Russia even after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $220m in 2021.

The magnate’s 35-year-old son, Artur, is believed to also have many enemies. He was convicted of fraud in Estonia this year after pleading guilty to running a fake investment scam from Ukraine that obtained around €100m between 2019 and 2022.

The attack has rocked Monaco, one of the world’s smallest sovereign states known for its high concentration of ultra-rich residents. Monaco’s Prince Albert II described it as “an odious act” and said all public services had been mobilised.

AFP and Associated Press contributed to this report