A bomb explodes in front of a building in the heart of the Principality: three injured, two in critical condition. The investigators follow the trail of the attack and hunt for the suspect caught on camera. For Monaco this is an unprecedented episode in recent history
A violent explosion shattered the tranquility of Principality of Monaco. It was just after 8.50pm when a bomb exploded in Rue Révérend Père Louis Frollaclose to the border with France. The toll is three injured, all belonging to the same family unit, including Vadym Ermolaevhis wife and 13 year old son. The conditions of the entrepreneur and his wife are considered serious. For the Minister of State Christophe Mirmand the privileged lead remains that of the attack. Ermolaev58 years old, is considered one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in theUkraine. His group is active in the real estate, industrial and agricultural sectors. In 2019 he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and acquired Cypriot citizenship. Four years later the president Volodymyr Zelensky imposed personal sanctions on him on charges of having maintained his own economic interests in Crimea after the Russian annexation, through a network of shell companies operating under the legislation of Fly.
Investigators believe it is possible that the target of the action was the family Ermolaevalthough no hypothesis is currently ruled out. The investigations will have to establish whether the target was really the oligarch or someone else present in the building at the time of the explosion. A fundamental piece of the investigation is represented by the recordings of the video surveillance system. The images would show an individual depositing a backpack in front of the entrance to the building before quickly walking away towards Beausoleil, on French territory. A few seconds later the device went into operation. The explosion struck the access to the building causing injuries to the three family members. Ermolaev and his wife remain hospitalized with a reserved prognosis, while the son, despite having suffered significant trauma, is not in imminent danger of his life. According to reports from Mirmand, the bomb had been filled with bolts and other metal elements to increase its damaging capacity. Judicial police specialists are now reconstructing each phase of the attack to identify who organized and physically carried out the action.
The bomb squad, forensic police experts and investigators from the Principality arrived on site while the Gendarmerie ordered a strengthening of controls along the crossings towards France, concentrating the searches above all in the area of There Turbiewhere the suspect caught on camera may have gone. “As far as I know, Monaco had never had to deal with an event of this nature,” the prosecutor said Thibault Stéphanehighlighting the exceptional nature of the episode. The investigation is still in a preliminary phase and will have to clarify not only who the recipient of the attack was, but also the context in which such an unusual action took place. Forever Monk represents one of the countries with the highest level of security in the world. Local news was marked above all by events of a financial nature, international money laundering and isolated episodes attributable to organized crime. The best-known case remains that of the banker Edmond Safrawho died in 1999 in the arson of his residence. Never, however, the Principality had had to deal with an attack carried out using an explosive device placed in an inhabited area. An element that gives the event a historic significance and is destined to have inevitable repercussions also on the security system of the small state.
