“From what is clear, the explosive material was very rare. It is known from public sources that such explosive materials are not present in the regular army, but the Ukrainian military intelligence has it,” said V. Yermolayev.
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This case indeed involves GUR officer Vladyslav Reut, who, as stated, directly participated in the assassination attempt on V. Yermolayev in Monaco by Anastasia Berezovska.
“There is also information that V. Reut is a specialist in explosive devices and that he was the one who made the device used in the assassination attempt. Therefore, it naturally leads to the conclusion about a possible connection between the origin of these explosives and Reut’s involvement,” said the injured billionaire.
In his opinion, the deceased perpetrator of the crime, A. Berezovska, did not act alone. The man stated that V. Reut could have obtained the explosives at his workplace.
According to V. Yermolayev, it was some kind of liquid explosive: “It was brought from Ukraine, delivered already as a finished product made by Vladyslav Reut, brought to Europe and then used here. It is a very rare thing, a liquid explosive that leaves terrible chemical burns on the body. Here is another nuance. Such explosive material cannot be bought in a store or anywhere else; it is not present in regular armed forces. It is a very specialized item, very much so.”
The victim indicated that after the assassination attempt, he communicated with official GUR representatives who assured him that the case was being investigated and an internal inquiry was underway.
“GUR really hardly comments on this. Their position boils down to the investigation continuing and nothing is clear yet. But even regarding Reut, no one has publicly said that a GUR employee was involved in Anastasia Berezovska’s murder. After all, that is a fact,” V. Yermolayev complained.
“Suddenly everything went dark”
Earlier, in an interview with CNN, the businessman rejected both the family motive version and the assumption that it could have been an operation ordered by the Ukrainian state. He tends to believe that the attack was a private order.
And the woman who carried it out, according to V. Yermolayev, was a “manipulated pawn”.
“In this story, she was not the main character. I think she was simply a naive and foolish executor who was made to believe in one way or another that she was doing something important and grand,” he told CNN.
Recalling the explosion, the man, whose legs were still heavily bandaged during the interview and who had a small scar visible near his eye, said that after the explosion his thoughts “went dark.”
“For a moment I thought the electronic keys exploded in my hand. But then I saw my injured partner collapsed on the stairs. My thirteen-year-old son was waving with bloody hands. Panic set in. My own body was covered with burns, chunks of flesh were missing,” the businessman recalled on CNN.
15min reminds that on June 29 around 9 p.m., an explosion rocked Monaco, injuring three people, two of whom suffered very serious injuries.
It was then reported that the target of the attack was V. Yermolayev, who is sanctioned by Ukraine, and his family members.
After the explosion, a large-scale operation began to find the suspect who planted the explosive – the person was caught on surveillance cameras. It was believed that this person managed to escape to French territory. Later, journalists found out that the suspect was a woman who may have disguised herself as a man.
On July 3, Interpol issued an international search warrant for 39-year-old Ukrainian citizen A. Berezovska. According to Monaco law enforcement agencies, she was suspected of planting an explosive device that caused serious injuries to V. Yermolayev and his relatives. A few days later, it was revealed that the woman was killed and buried near Kyiv.
On the same day, the National Police, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Military Intelligence (GUR), and the General Prosecutor’s Office (OGP) announced that they had detained two individuals suspected of murdering the wanted woman. Investigators suspected that these men could also be connected to the assassination attempt on the Ukrainian businessman in Monaco, as they had data showing multiple transfers to A. Berezovska’s cryptocurrency and bank accounts.
According to the investigation, the woman was killed on July 3 near the village of Yuriv in the Kyiv region by military intelligence officer V. Reut and his accomplice, former SBU officer Vitaliy Zhykovych.
On July 9, the Kyiv Pechersk District Court remanded the suspects in A. Berezovska’s murder without bail.
According to sources from “Ukrainska Pravda,” investigators believe that the organizers of the terrorist act in Monaco are precisely the curators of the suspect A. Berezovska, who is suspected of organizing the assassination attempt on the sanctioned businessman.
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