An explosive device detonated in a building in Monaco June 29 as wealthy Ukrainian-origin businessman Vadym Yermolayev was just arriving. Several people were seriously injured including Yermolayev, his female companion, and a 13-year-old boy. Yermolayev had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 (he holds Cypriote citizenship) and has been under personal sanctions by the Kiev regime since 2023, charged with failing to shut down his cognac business in Crimea when it joined Russia years earlier.
The bombing has drawn sensational press coverage in Europe for two reasons. One is that Monaco has been considered a very safe place; no acts of terrorism have been recorded there in this century. Secondly, as the major French newspaper Le Figaro and others report, the Monegasque and French police are working on the hypothesis that the bombing was the work of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). This news has prompted the first public outcry over possible SBU terrorism. The event is a warning to European leaders that the hotbed of crime and terrorism they sponsor in the heart of Europe, namely Ukraine, is now coming around to haunt them.
Besides his conflict with Zelensky, French sources report that Yermolayev was preparing to testify in the European Parliament regarding corruption in Ukraine. Ukrainian exiles point to other possible factors. Former Ukrainian MP Oleg Tsaryov noted in a video interview today, that Yermolayev originated from the Jewish business community in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro), which was integrated with criminal and shadow-economy networks in Russia and in Israel. Furthermore, he said, Yermolayev’s son Artur was arrested in Cyprus last year on an Interpol warrant and extradited to Estonia, on charges of running Ukraine-based criminal call centers. These centers are high-tech scam operations, which lure people over the phone into “investing” away all their savings. The SBU reportedly has given the call centers a pass, especially as they targeted victims in Russia, while closely monitoring their activity. It is also alleged that the SBU takes a cut of the lucrative call-center scams. Yury Podolyaka, the military blogger (from Sumy, Ukraine, now based in Russia) who interviewed Tsaryov, expressed hope that exposure of an SBU role in criminal disputes and/or terrorism will “show the true face of the monster” the Europeans are supporting.