A parcel bomb exploded at a residential building in Monaco on Monday evening, injuring three people, two of them seriously, in what the principality’s chief prosecutor described on Tuesday as an attempted assassination. The blast triggered a cross-border manhunt involving police in Monaco and neighbouring France.
Prosecutor General Stephane Thibault said an unidentified suspect placed the device in the building shortly before 9pm local time, and that it detonated when three residents, two adults and a child, arrived home and entered their ground-floor apartment. A woman remains in life-threatening condition, while a man and the child were also injured but are no longer at critical risk. All three were taken to a hospital in Nice, France. Thibault said the attacker is believed to have acted alone and ruled out terrorism as a motive, though the precise motive remains unclear.
French broadcaster BFMTV, citing sources, identified the intended target as Vadym Yermolaiev, a Ukrainian-born businessman from Dnipro who built his fortune through the Alef Group, a holding company spanning commercial real estate, manufacturing and agriculture. Yermolaiev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship and became a Cypriot national in 2017. In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy placed him under sanctions as part of a wider package targeting individuals and companies Kyiv accused of maintaining business links to Russia or Russian-occupied territories.
The suspect is believed to have crossed into France, according to Monaco’s Minister of State Christophe Mirmand, who noted there are no border checks between the two countries. Around 84 police officers and 50 firefighters from both nations have been deployed, with French broadcaster reports indicating roughly 40 French soldiers are also assisting the search.
Monaco, home to roughly 40,000 people, is known for its luxury lifestyle, tight security and near-total absence of violent crime. Prince Albert II said in a statement that all relevant state services were mobilised in close cooperation with French authorities to establish the circumstances of the attack as swiftly as possible.
