Twelve hours after an explosive package detonated outside a residential building in Monaco, investigators said they had ruled out terrorism as a motive.
Prosecutors initially said the incident was being treated as a possible terrorist attack, but Monaco's Minister of State Christophe Mirmand urged the public “not to jump to conclusions regarding the legal classification of the incident.”
The publication reported that the suspect is believed to have fled to the French town of Beausoleil after leaving the principality. Investigators subsequently lost track of him, and his identity has not yet been officially established.
About 40 French gendarmes and two helicopters joined Monaco's law enforcement authorities in the search for the suspect. Search operations remain underway, while investigators are also reviewing surveillance camera footage.
Monaco explosion
A powerful explosion rocked a residential building in Monaco, between Boulevard d'Italie and Rue du Révérend Louis Frolla near the French border, on the evening of June 29. According to French media, all three people injured were members of the same Ukrainian family. The parents, both in their 50s or 60s, sustained life-threatening injuries. A 13-year-old boy was also injured and remains in moderate condition.
BFMTV reported that those injured included Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev and his companion.
Two business sources cited by Ukrainska Pravda confirmed that one of the victims was Dnipro businessman Vadym Yermolaiev. In 2021, Forbes estimated his net worth at $220 million.
Yermolaiev renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 after obtaining Cypriot citizenship. In 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted a National Security and Defense Council decision imposing personal sanctions on him.