The international manhunt for the person who bombed a Ukrainian tycoon in Monaco took a dark, cinematic twist. Anastasiia Berezovska, the 39-year-old woman wanted by Interpol for planting a remote-controlled explosive device in a luxury Monaco apartment block, was found dead near Kyiv with two bullets in the back of her head. What seemed like a straightforward state-sanctioned hit or a messy cleanup operation by intelligence operatives has fractured into something much more confusing.
The main suspect in her execution, a serving Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) officer named Vladyslav Reut, has changed his story.
When the news first broke, it looked like a classic spy thriller asset disposal. A high-stakes bomb hits a controversial tycoon on European soil, the operative flees across the continent, returns to Ukraine, and gets eliminated by her handlers. But Ukrainian prosecutors just revealed details from a Kyiv court hearing that upend that clean narrative. Now, the official line from the suspects is that this brutal execution was born entirely out of "personal reasons".
If that sounds incredibly convenient for Ukraine’s intelligence agencies, it’s because it is.
The Forest Execution and the New Alibi
A Ukrainian court pulled back the curtain on exactly how Berezovska died, detailing a meticulously planned trap. According to the prosecution, a 50-year-old former law enforcement official named Vitalii Zhykovych recruited the 34-year-old active intelligence officer, Vladyslav Reut, to pull the trigger.
On July 3, 2026, just as Interpol was slapping a Red Notice on Berezovska, the two men met her at a roadside café along the M06 Kyiv-Chop highway. They picked her up in a black BMW. They drove deep into a wooded area near the village of Yuriv in the Bucha district. While inside the car, Zhykovych quietly prepped the firearm and ammunition.
The plan went off with terrifying precision:
- Zhykovych stepped out and distracted Berezovska.
- Reut slipped up behind her with a pistol.
- He fired at least two shots directly into the back of her skull, killing her instantly.
- The duo buried her body in the woods and tossed the murder weapon into a nearby lake.
When police caught up with them via digital forensic tracing, Reut initially confessed to the slaying. However, both men are now pushing back against the idea that this was an official, deniable operation ordered from the top floors of Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence. They claim it was a rogue, personal dispute. Reut insists he acted entirely on his own initiative without the knowledge or blessing of his superiors.
Follow the Crypto Trails
The "personal grudge" defense falls apart under close scrutiny. Investigators didn’t stumble upon these two suspects by accident. Ukraine’s security services (SBU) and national police flagged them after tracking financial anomalies. Reut and Zhykovych had been repeatedly transferring large sums of money and cryptocurrency directly to Berezovska.
Those aren't typical transactions for a casual personal dispute. It looks exactly like a funding mechanism for a hit.
The target of the initial attack on June 29 was Vadym Yermolaiev, a massive real estate and construction tycoon from Dnipro. He used to be a fixture on Forbes Ukraine's list of the country's wealthiest people. But in 2023, Ukraine slapped heavy sanctions on him. The allegation? He maintained highly lucrative business ties with Russian entities operating in occupied Crimea.
The bomb Berezovska allegedly planted in the entrance hall of Yermolaiev's luxury Monaco apartment block was sophisticated, remote-detonated, and tore through the building, critically injuring the tycoon and his partner while wounding their 13-year-old son. Berezovska had reportedly disguised herself as a man, wearing light-colored shorts and a black bucket hat, before fleeing across France, Italy, and back into Germany, where she had been living.
The crypto trail ties the men who killed her directly to her timeline as an active operative.
What the Clean Story is Trying to Hide
The frantic pivot to a "personal motive" story serves a massive geopolitical purpose. Ukraine has carried out incredibly lethal drone and explosive operations against Russian military targets, collaborators, and Kremlin officials inside occupied territories and deep within Russia itself. Western allies have quietly accepted those actions as part of a brutal war of survival.
An assassination attempt using high-grade explosives in Monaco—a playground for Western billionaires, royals, and politicians—crosses a major diplomatic red line. It risks alienating European partners at a time when Kyiv desperately needs sustained military and financial backing. If a serving military intelligence officer is caught funding and then executing the bomber, the assumption that this was a state-directed hit becomes almost impossible to deny.
The "rogue agent" narrative protects the state from international backlash. It isolates the blame to Reut and Zhykovych.
Adding to the sheer sketchiness of the case, a search of the suspects' properties uncovered a blood-stained basement that police described as a torture chamber, complete with hammers and specialized interrogation gear. The presence of a dedicated torture room strongly suggests these men weren't just two guys with a personal grudge; they were operating a highly organized, violent enterprise.
Where the Case Goes Next
Vladyslav Reut has been remanded in custody without bail as the premeditated murder investigation proceeds. While the suspects attempt to decouple their actions from the state apparatus, Western intelligence agencies are undoubtedly digging into the electronic and crypto footprints left behind.
Keep an eye on how Monaco and French prosecutors handle the fallout. Monaco's deputy prosecutor previously emphasized that the sophistication of the device proved Berezovska did not act alone. If European investigators formally link the funding of that blast back to official Ukrainian state bank accounts or intelligence wallets, the political consequences for Kyiv will be severe, regardless of what story Reut spins in a Ukrainian courtroom.
