Ex-Officer Claims Ukraine Spies Approved Monaco Bombing
Did Ukraine's military intelligence order an assassination campaign or is a murder suspect's shifting prison testimony pinning a rogue operation on Kyiv?
Above: Former SBU officer Vitalii Zhykovych, a suspect in the murder of Anastasiia Berezovska, appears in a Kyiv Court on July 9. Image credit: Pavlo Bahmut/Contributor/Ukrinform/Future Publishing/Getty Images
The Facts
- Vitalii Zhykovych, a former Ukrainian security service officer held in a Kyiv prison, told the BBC in an interview published Thursday that he believed the June bombing targeting businessman Vadym Yermolayev in Monaco was approved by senior HUR officers.
- Zhykovych said active-duty intelligence officer Vladyslav Reut, whom he called "The Boss," proposed the operation and told him it was retaliation for Yermolayev allegedly funding the annexation of Crimea. HUR said it is "committed to a full investigation."
- Yermolayev, sanctioned by Kyiv in 2023 over alleged business dealings in Crimea, said in July that he remained in intensive care, that his partner suffered irreversible injuries and that their son sustained burns and fractures.
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The Spin
Government-critical narrative
Ukraine’s military intelligence is increasingly looking guilty, with a chain of command pointing upward rather than toward random freelancers. A mission framed as punishment for financing Russia, combined with an active officer’s role, carries the hallmarks of state authorization. Kyiv’s security apparatus cannot credibly dismiss coordinated violence as ordinary crime.
Pro-government narrative
The accusation against Kyiv rests on a murder suspect’s shifting story, unsupported by independent evidence and contradicted by an earlier claim of civilian direction. A rogue operation fits the record far better than state authorization. Uncorroborated prison testimony cannot establish government policy.
