Bomb hidden in backpack explodes outside Monaco apartment, targeting Ukrainian tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev

30 June 2026 , 08:55

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Bomb hidden in backpack explodes outside Monaco apartment, targeting Ukrainian tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev

A huge  blast has rocked Monaco after a booby-trapped backpack exploded, targeting a Ukrainian oligarch and his family.

Vadym Yermolaiev, 58, and his wife were left fighting for their lives after the bomb ripped through a residential block in the principality’s luxury La Rousse district.

CCTV showed a man dropping a backpack on the steps of a building before fleeing the scene on foot towards the French border, Le Figaro reported.

BFM TV called the makeshift explosive device a “parcel bomb”, citing the principality’s prosecutor general.

The victims were said to be oligarch Yermolaiev, and his wife and his son, in what authorities have described as a “deliberate” attack.

When asked if the incident was an assassination attempt, Monaco’s Secretary of State Christophe Mirmand said: “We can presume that it was.”

Yermolaiev is a real estate mogul and the 23rd richest man in Ukraine, according to Forbes.

The tycoon renounced his citizenship and moved to Monaco after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was sanctioned by Kyiv in 2023 for selling alcohol in occupied Crimea.

He and his wife, Anna Yermolaiev, were left fighting for their lives after the explosion, while their 23-year-old son was less severely injured. All three were rushed to a hospital in Nice, France.

Mirmand said: “This is the first time in history, to my knowledge, that such an act has taken place in the principality.

James Smith

Editor-in-Chief