Ukrainian-born oligarch with Russian ties reportedly injured in Monaco explosion

An explosion at an apartment building entrance in Monaco reportedly wounded a Ukrainian tycoon with ties to Russia and two other people, the chief prosecutor in the exclusive Mediterranean country said Tuesday.

A search was underway for a person who fled on foot after the blast late Monday, prosecutor Stéphane Thibault said, adding that the motive was unclear.

Media reports identified Ukrainian construction tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev as being among the injured. He has said he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship nearly a decade ago, and he was targeted by Ukrainian sanctions in 2023 for ties to Russia. A woman and a child were also hurt.

“It appears that the family was specifically targeted,” said Christophe Mirmand, the minister of state for Monaco. He said the person seen on video “had walked around the area several times while waiting for the victims,” according to the footage.

It was not clear why the family was targeted or by whom.

Russia has a long history of targeting its enemies abroad, and Western intelligence officials have recently said that a campaign of targeted killings has ramped up since President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine is also believed to have carried out attacks and targeted killings of Russian figures in the course of the war, although those have largely been confined to Ukrainian or Russian territory.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said its embassy in France, which is also responsible for Monaco, was in touch with local authorities. Ukrainian diplomats were at the scene providing assistance, it said.

The attacker ⁠left a parcel in front of a building shortly before the three people who live in ⁠the ground floor flat arrived, at which time the parcel exploded, Thibault told a news conference. The residence is near the French border.

In a picture captured by surveillance cameras and published by French media, the person is seen on the street wearing a black jacket, light-coloured pants, white shoes and a black bucket hat that partly concealed his face.

The family members are regular residents of Monaco, and authorities did not yet know whether they had been threatened in the past, Mirmand said.

The blast occurred around 9 p.m. local time on Monday. Thibault did not provide the identities of those injured, but said a woman was in the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The woman’s partner and the 13-year-old child suffered less severe injuries, but were still hospitalized Tuesday, Mimrand told French news broadcaster LCI.