A woman suspected of bombing a sanctioned Ukrainian oligarch's family in Monaco has been found shot dead in Ukraine — and one of the men arrested for her murder is an active officer in Ukraine's military intelligence agency, the same security apparatus American taxpayers have bankrolled for years.
Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, was discovered with a gunshot wound to the head near Kyiv, according to Ukrainian prosecutors. Two men are in custody: a serving officer with Ukraine's HUR military intelligence and a former law enforcement officer. Prosecutors say cryptocurrency transfers from the men to Berezovska led investigators to them. The HUR officer claims he was "acting on his own initiative" and never told his superiors about his contacts with the dead woman.
That claim deserves scrutiny. Ukrainian prosecutors also released footage of a blood-stained basement at the former cop's home containing hammers and other equipment — which they described as a "torture chamber." Used pistol casings were recovered near Berezovska's body, the SBU reported.
Berezovska was the chief suspect in a June 29 bombing at a Monaco apartment building that targeted Vadym Yermolaiev, a 58-year-old Ukraine-born tycoon who obtained Cypriot citizenship in 2019. Ukraine sanctioned Yermolaiev in 2023 for maintaining business ties with Russian entities operating in occupied Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. Yermolaiev, his partner, and their son were all injured in the blast. French prosecutors say Berezovska, who had been living in Germany, disguised herself as a man to plant the device, then fled on foot into France before driving through Italy to Germany.
The Guardian framed the arrests as potentially "deeply damaging" to Kyiv because they coincided with President Zelenskyy's arrival at a NATO summit seeking more Western support. The Daily Caller's reporting focused on the SBU's account of the investigation. What neither outlet dwelled on is the obvious question for Americans: why is a security service funded in part by U.S. assistance producing officers who moonlight as contract killers on European soil?
Independent Ukrainian media have labeled wealthy Ukrainians living in Monaco the "Monaco battalion" — oligarchs and politicians who sit out the war in a luxury tax haven while ordinary Ukrainians fight and die. Yermolaiev appears to be one of them. Prince Albert II of Monaco called the bombing "an odious act."
Ukraine has carried out numerous assassinations using explosives against Russian military officers and Kremlin-backed officials inside Russia, The Guardian noted, but added there is "no established precedent" for such attacks on European soil. That line is now blurred. Whether the HUR officer acted alone or on orders, the result is the same: Ukrainian intelligence operatives are treating Europe as an operational theater, and a woman who knew too much ended up with a bullet in her skull.
The SBU says it has shared all details with Monégasque authorities and will continue investigating. Interpol says the Red Notice for Berezovska stays active until Monaco asks for its removal. What stays unanswered is who ultimately profited from the hit on Yermolaiev, who ordered the silencing of Berezovska, and how many more American dollars will flow to a security state that can't account for its own officers.
