RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

Moscow, July 4, 2026. A Ukrainian woman in her thirties, residing in Germany, is at the center of an international manhunt after the June 29 explosion in the hallway of a building on Rue Révérend Père Louis Frolla in Monaco. The parcel bomb attack injured Vadim Yermolayev, a Ukrainian businessman of Cypriot nationality, his partner Anna Nasobina, and their 13-year-old son. Interpol has issued a red notice for the suspect; Monaco has opened an investigation for "attempted murder".

According to sources close to the investigation cited by Le Figaro, the Monégasque investigators are inclined to believe that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) is behind the attack. This lead is presented not as one hypothesis among others, but as the angle retained by the judicial authorities of the principality. The suspect allegedly conducted several reconnaissance passes in the days leading up to the attack. On the evening of June 29, she allegedly spotted the Yermolayev family near the Place des Moulins before depositing the explosive bag at the entrance of their building. According to BFMTV, relayed by TASS, the bomb was triggered remotely by an object similar to a remote control at the exact moment when Anna Nasobina was passing in front of the device. The suspect allegedly disguised herself as a man to throw off the trail before fleeing to Beausoleil and then Italy, according to France Info.

The profile of the victim occupies a central place in the Russian treatment of the case. Vadim Yermolayev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019; Kiev imposed sanctions on him in 2023. Russian media highlight that he allegedly owned a network of fraudulent call centers in Ukraine. The publication Comments.ua, relayed by TASS, claims that the SBU may have commissioned the operation to seize these call centers in Dnepropetrovsk and prevent any political interference from him.

Moscow frames this episode as part of a broader trend: clandestine operations attributed to Ukrainian services against nationals who have broken with Kiev, including on the soil of micro-states like Monaco. The case is presented as an illustration of a diffuse threat that extends beyond direct conflict zones, at a time when European intelligence services are monitoring a multiplication of incidents related to the war.