Kyiv’s Pecherskyi District Court on July 9 remanded Vladyslav Reut, an officer of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, in custody without bail. He is suspected of murdering Anastasiia Berezovska, Suspilne reported from the courtroom.
In the case of Berezovska’s murder, besides Reut, there is another suspect — former police officer Vitalii Zhykovych. His name was given by lawyer Anatolii Ivanov before the court hearing on choosing a preventive measure for the GUR officer.
According to him, Zhykovych was a member of Right Sector in 2014, and in 2022 he voluntarily joined the territorial defense, later served in the SBU, but was eventually dismissed. Ivanov noted that his client does not admit guilt.
According to investigators, Berezovska was the person who planted explosives near a building in Monaco, injuring three people, including Vadym Yermolaiev, a sanctioned businessman from Dnipro. The woman later returned to Ukraine, where she was eventually found dead.
As Vitalii Zhykovych’s lawyer told Suspilne, Reut is an active GUR officer. According to the lawyer, case materials show that Reut initially confessed to killing Berezovska, but later recanted his testimony and began claiming that Zhykovych had killed her.
The defense says Reut incriminated himself because he felt his life was in danger and because of threats from another person involved in the case.
On the evening of June 29, a powerful explosion occurred in Monaco near a residential building on the border with France. Three members of one Ukrainian family were injured in the blast. According to media reports, the victims were Vadym Yermolaiev and his relatives.
Media outlets also reported that one of the injured women had both legs amputated as a result of her injuries.
Surveillance footage shows a suspect in the attack throwing a backpack in front of the building’s door. He is being searched for. It is currently believed that he managed to leave for France.
Monaco Prime Minister Christophe Mirmand said the incident was a planned attack and an act of terrorism. According to him, the explosives may have contained bolts and metal parts.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that three members of one family of Ukrainian origin were injured in the Monaco explosion, two of whom are in extremely serious condition. Ukrainian diplomats from the embassy in France are at the scene.
Monaco Prosecutor General Stéphane Thibault said the explosion that injured members of one family of Ukrainian origin had been classified as attempted murder.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened criminal proceedings over the completed contract attempted murder of three members of the Ukrainian family of businessman Vadym Yermolaiev in Monaco.
Later, it became known that the body of Ukrainian citizen Anastasiia Berezovska, who was suspected of carrying out the attempt on Yermolaiev, had been found near Kyiv.
Law enforcement officers detained a GUR officer and a former serviceman on suspicion of murdering the woman. They were notified of suspicion.
