Ukrainian ex-officer claims HUR ordered Monaco millionaire bombing from prison

In a prison cell in Kyiv, a former Ukrainian security officer has broken his silence about one of the year's most bewildering international crimes. Vitalii Zhykovych, arrested in connection with a bomb attack in Monaco last June and the subsequent murder of the suspected bomber, gave his first detailed account to the BBC in an exclusive prison interview arranged through his lawyer. His story—a tangle of allegations, denials, and shifting explanations—places the blame for the attack squarely on senior members of HUR, Ukraine's military intelligence agency, and raises urgent questions about whether a state apparatus ordered the killing of a wealthy businessman and his family.

The attack itself was straightforward in its brutality. On a June evening in Monaco, Vadym Yermolayev, a Ukrainian-born millionaire, was returning from dinner with his family when a woman planted a bomb in a bag on their doorstep. Surveillance footage captured the moment: the woman, later identified as Anastasia Berezovska, walked slightly ahead of the group, left the device, and walked away. The explosion detonated as the family approached. Yermolayev and his thirteen-year-old son suffered severe injuries. His partner was catastrophically wounded. Yermolayev later called their survival "nothing short of a miracle."

Berezovska was quickly identified through CCTV footage and circulated by Interpol on July 2nd. She had already fled—driving through Italy and Germany, then taking a bus from Frankfurt back to Ukraine. But before she could be arrested and questioned, she was driven into the woods west of Kyiv and shot twice in the head. Zhykovych and Reut, an active-duty HUR officer, were both arrested for her murder. Reut initially confessed and led investigators to the shallow grave. Then, days later in court, he reversed his testimony and blamed Zhykovych instead.

Now Zhykovych has offered his own version. He describes himself as a "freelancer" for Ukraine's SBU security service and says Berezovska was his "agent." He insists he did not order her to kill anyone, and he did not kill her. Instead, he alleges that Reut—whom he calls "The Boss"—proposed the Monaco operation and told him it had been authorized by HUR's senior leadership. When Zhykovych refused to use Berezovska for the bombing because she was not fully trained, Reut agreed to send her for reconnaissance only. But then Reut communicated directly with Berezovska without including Zhykovych and, according to Zhykovych's account, provided her with the explosives himself.

The motive Zhykovych offers is as murky as the rest of the case. He claims Reut told him the bombing was retaliation for "funding the annexation of Crimea"—meaning Yermolayev was allegedly paying taxes to Russia from businesses in Russian-occupied territory. "In my view, this constitutes grounds for the operation," Zhykovych said from his cell. Yermolayev has repeatedly denied any remaining business interests linked to Russia. But at a recent custody hearing, Zhykovych contradicted himself, saying Reut had actually told him the attack was not "authorised" at all, and that "someone had ordered this target from the civilian side." He refused to elaborate, and the judge interrupted him before he could say more.

Zhykovych also revealed that Reut had originally discussed two targets for attack. When pressed, he said he could not name the second one. Other sources strongly suggest it was a pro-Russian blogger convicted in absentia by Ukraine of treason. The shifting explanations, the contradictions, the refusals to speak—all of it leaves the core question unanswered: was this a state-ordered assassination, a rogue operation by intelligence officers acting on their own, or something else entirely?

Yermolayev himself has suggested HUR involvement, naming "individuals close to the agency's current and former leadership" as potentially linked to the attack. He has called for "the truth, protection, and justice." HUR has said only that it is "committed to a full investigation." The SBU described Zhykovych as a "former law enforcement officer" and offered no further comment. Meanwhile, Berezovska's family—her husband, her young son whom she brought to Germany as a refugee in early 2022—are left with their own questions. Zhykovych claims she was a double agent working against Russia. Her husband calls that "nonsense" and believes she was dragged unwittingly into the affair. Zhykovych says she told him after the bombing that Reut had promised her fifty thousand dollars. Residents in her village remember her saving to buy a flat. Instead, she was lured back to Ukraine and killed.