Female ‘Monaco bomber’ is found shot dead in Kyiv with Ukrainian spy and cop arrested – a week after blast that maimed oligarch and his mistress

The Ukrainian woman suspected of a bomb attack that targeted a wealthy Ukrainian-born businessman in Monaco was shot dead in Kyiv, the country’s prosecutor general’s office has confirmed.

The body of Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was discovered around 11.00pm on July 6, a week after the blast that maimed sanctioned millionaire Vadym Ermolaev, his mistress and his son.

In a statement, prosecutors said they detained an employee of Ukraine’s military intelligence service (HUR), who said he killed the woman together with another suspect.

The other suspect is understood to be a policeman, according to an investigative source. 

Berezovska was suspected of leaving a package in the entrance hall of an apartment building on June 29 around 9pm local time, before fleeing the scene on foot and then driving to Germany. 

Police across Europe had been hunting for the ‘armed and dangerous’ Berezovska after she was identified as the prime suspect by her full name in a Red Notice by Interpol – the international police organisation. 

She was wanted for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy. 

Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond said she had been disguised as a man when she allegedly carried out the attack.

Ermolaev’s mistress, London-based Ukrainian Anna Nasobina, 46, is still fighting for life, after her legs were amputated due to her injuries.

The couple’s son, Ariel, 13, also sustained minor injuries.

Reports indicate that Berezovska arrived in Ukraine on July 1.

The oligarch – one of Ukraine’s richest men who had given up his citizenship – emerged from a coma after the blast.

But it is believed Nasobina remains seriously ill.

Her son Ariel was able to tell police what he remembered from the bombing at the entrance to the residential block he shared with his mother.

Initially it was thought that Ermolaev’s wife, Anna Ermolaev, 56, had been wounded but she was not in the country at the time of the blast, and it is clear her husband was with Nasobina when the bomb exploded.

There are suspicions that the bombing could be related to a network of fraudulent call centres in Dnipro, Ukraine, allegedly used to carry out large-scale financial scams across Europe.

The Ermolaev family is alleged to have played a significant role in the scheme, with the oligarch’s name reportedly at the centre of a sprawling pan-European investigation into clandestine call centres operating out of Ukraine. 

According to sources, the so-called ‘boiler room’ operations defrauded thousands of investors in Germany, Estonia and Ukraine of more than €100m (£86m) between 2019 and 2022, through fake cryptocurrency investment schemes.

The network also allegedly sold fraudulent divorce advice to unsuspecting victims.

Ukrainian law enforcement sources say that French investigators believe the murder attempt may have been orchestrated by members of a criminal network in retaliation.

While Iermolaiev reportedly handled the financial side of the operation, it was his 35-year-old son, Artur, who allegedly ran the network.

Artur was arrested by Interpol in Cyprus at the end of 2025 following an Estonian arrest warrant.

After being extradited to Estonia, he was accused of creating a criminal organisation engaged in telephone fraud. 

According to Estonian investigators, Artur, along with three other defendants, created fraudulent call centres in Ukraine that ‘offered fictitious investment opportunities’.

He was handed a suspended prison sentence, paid €8.5m, and left Estonia shortly afterwards, according to Meduza. He is now banned from entering Estonia.

Both father and son deny any wrongdoing, saying all of their business activities are above board.

Russian Telegram channels backing Vladimir Putin’s war have strongly sought to blame the Ukrainian Security Service [SBU].

A woman resembling Berezovska was filmed outside the ‘Sun’s Palace’ – a lavish apartment block owned by Ermolaev.

It was in the foyer, just before 9pm, that a dumped rucksack exploded after the woman triggered it using a mobile phone.

‘The prime suspect was identified by a witness,’ said an investigating source.

Footage from nearby surveillance cameras showed a figure wearing a black bucket hat and fleeing on foot across the border to France, where there are no checkpoints.

She headed into the town of Beausoleil, and made her way to Italy and then Germany, investigators believe.

‘She is armed and dangerous, and thought to be in the company of accomplices,’ said one source. ‘She should be approached with extreme caution.’

Cameras first picked up the suspect in the area on Monday morning, before she returned to place the bomb, according to the same security sources.

She is thought to have been ‘around 12 metres away’ when she triggered the device, said one.

German police said Friday they had searched the home of a Ukrainian woman suspected of involvement in a bomb attack in Monaco which injured three people, including a Ukrainian-born tycoon.

‘The woman being sought is currently on the run,’ they added in a statement.

Following a request from Monaco authorities, ‘the rented apartment of a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman in the Main-Taunus district was searched on Thursday’ police said.

Police in the central state of Hesse said that ‘in addition, a vehicle used by (the suspect) was searched and seized’, without giving further details.

Police also said that ‘evidence was secured and will be handed over to the Monaco authorities’, without giving further details.

The wounded boy has made a rapid recovery and is currently providing evidence to police and prosecutors.

‘He is telling them exactly what he saw, although clearly his memory is very blurred,’ said a security source.

‘It appears that his mother took the full force of the blast, while he suffered relatively minor burns and shrapnel injuries.’

Nasobina has been described in the past as Ermolaev’s common-law wife.

She is a Ukrainian national who comes from Ermolaev’s home city of Dnipro, having spent a lot of time in England.

Nasobina is listed as a director of Wycombe Square Investments LLP in London, but was frequently in Monaco, particularly during the summer.

In turn, Ermolaev’s wife, Anna Ermolaev, uses a high-security family villa in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the nearby French Riviera resort town, which is the second most expensive residential location in the world, after Monaco.

The suspect was likely using a so-called burner phone – one that can be bought relatively cheaply, without providing any kind of identification.

Such phones are frequently used by lawbreakers, and then disposed of once a crime has been committed.

Police and French Army helicopters with searchlights and numerous drones have all been seen in the search zone over the days and nights since the attack.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.