Two victims fighting for their lives after unprecedented luxury microstate explosion; CCTV shows suspect dropping a backpack outside a residential building.
DUBAI: A massive joint manhunt is underway across Monaco and neighbouring France following a rare makeshift bomb explosion in the heart of the billionaire tax haven on Monday evening. The blast left several people wounded, with French and Ukrainian media identifying wealthy Cypriot citizen and Ukrainian-born real estate oligarch Vadym Yermolaiev as the intended target.
The explosion occurred shortly before 9:00 PM (1900 GMT) on Monday in the glitzy centre of Monaco, a principality famous globally for its extreme security, luxury yachts, and ultra-wealthy residents. Christophe Mirmand, Minister of State of Monaco, confirmed to BFM TV that two of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack. “No event of this nature has ever happened in the Principality before,” Mirmand stated, highlighting the shockwaves the incident has sent through the highly policed enclave.
According to reports by French newspaper Le Figaro and BFM TV, video surveillance footage captured a man dropping a backpack at the entrance of a residential building just moments before the detonation. Monaco’s Prosecutor General described the explosive device as a “parcel bomb,” while Prince Albert of Monaco officially condemned the attack as “an odious act.”
The French Interior Ministry announced that emergency services were rapidly deployed across the border to provide operational backup, launching a synchronized cross-border police operation to track down the fugitive suspect.
The primary target, Vadym Yermolaiev, was historically a major real estate developer in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Yermolaiev left Ukraine several years ago, subsequently renouncing his citizenship to become a citizen of Cyprus. Notably, he had been placed under official Ukrainian sanctions in December 2023.
Monaco is widely regarded as one of the safest and most heavily monitored jurisdictions in the world, boasting a dense CCTV network and a near-zero violent crime rate. The targeting of a sanctioned, former Ukrainian oligarch on its soil marks a highly unusual and sophisticated security breach for the European microstate, raising international concerns over geopolitical spillover and targeted hits against wealthy expatriates.
