On the evening of June 29, a powerful explosion occurred in a residential building in Monaco. According to media reports, businessman Vadim Yermolayev was injured. He is from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and is considered one of the wealthiest businessmen in the country.
According to preliminary investigation, an unidentified person left a bag filled with explosives and metal pellets in the lobby of the building. A total of three people were reportedly injured in the blast – a man and a woman aged between 50 and 60 and a 13-year-old boy.
According to news outlets nice matineeBoth the legs of the woman were cut off in the blast. Media reports said Yermolayev suffered burn and shrapnel injuries. His wife later told the press that she was elsewhere at the time of the incident and so was unharmed.
According to French newspaper le figaroInvestigators in Monaco are also following up on suggestions that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) may have been behind the attack on the businessman. Monaco Prosecutor General Stéphane Thibault said on 1 July that investigators were treating the incident as an attempted murder. The search for suspects is ongoing.
What is known about Yermolaev?
Vadim Yermolayev is the founder of Aleph Trading and Manufacturing Group and one of the largest real estate developers in the city of Dnipro. He has made most of his fortune through investments in commercial and residential real estate. Apart from property development, the group’s businesses include construction materials manufacturing, agriculture, welding technology, mining and logistics.
In 2020, forbes ukraine He was ranked the 23rd richest entrepreneur in the country. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, various media estimates put his net worth at more than $200 million.
business deals in Crimea
Vadim Yermolayev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017 and obtained Cypriot citizenship. He said he took the decision because he was dissatisfied with the judicial and tax systems in Ukraine. On December 23, 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed personal sanctions on Yermolayev for 10 years under a decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The sanctions included 16 different sanctions, among them an asset freeze and limits on financial transactions.
According to the SBU, Yermolayev’s business activities in occupied Crimea were the reason for the sanctions. Ukraine’s security service said many of its companies continued to operate after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014 and re-registered under Russian law. By paying millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian state on a regular basis, the companies allegedly contributed financially to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
One of the sanctioned companies is Alef-Vinal-Crimea, which manages the Crimean operations of Alef-Vinal, one of Ukraine’s largest alcoholic beverage producers, a group that Yermoliyev also controls. Yermolayev has publicly denied the allegations and said that he did not act in Russia’s interests and that the sanctions against him are baseless.
Scandals related to Yermolayev family
In August 2022, journalists from Ukrainian news outlets Ukrainian Pravda It exposed what they called the “Monaco Battalion” – a network of Ukrainian businessmen, politicians and oligarchs who had settled on the French Riviera during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Vadim Yermolayev was also among those named.
In August 2024, the broadcaster Hromadaske A Dnipro-based company linked to Yermolayev was reported to have been selected to supply granite for the first phase of the National Military Memorial Cemetery of Ukraine. The company has denied the allegations. Hromadaske It was later reported that Yermolayev had transferred control of the company to his daughter Sofia Kononenko in an attempt to avoid Ukrainian sanctions.
In December 2025, Yermolayev’s son, Artur, was arrested in Cyprus and extradited to Estonia. In relation to the so-called Milton Group, an international online investment fraud network, he pleaded guilty, paid €8.5 million ($10 million) in compensation and received a five-year suspended sentence.
Is there any known motive for the attack?
Although French and Ukrainian media, citing sources close to the investigation, have reported that Yermolayev was the intended target of the attack, Monaco authorities have not officially confirmed this. Topics of discussion in the media included Yermolayev’s possible ties to former business partners in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, alleged ties to Russian organized crime, and a possible link to a criminal case involving his son. None of these theories have been officially confirmed.
This is not the first high-profile attack in Europe involving influential people from Ukraine. For example, in May 2025, Andrey Portnov, a former politician and lawyer with close ties to the regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was shot dead in Spain.
This article was originally published in Ukrainian.