A blood-stained torture chamber with axes and hammers has been found in the home of the ex-cop who shot the suspected female Monaco bomber dead, prosecutors have claimed.
Anastasiia Berezovska, a Ukrainian woman wanted for allegedly planting the parcel bomb injuring multi-millionaire Vadym Ermolaev last month, was found dead near Kyiv.
Police across Europe had been hunting for the ‘armed and dangerous’ 39-year-old Berezovska, a Ukrainian national who speaks German, after she was identified as the prime suspect in a Red Notice by Interpol – the international police organisation.
Berezovska, who escaped the wealthy Mediterranean principality by travelling to Italy, Germany and then Kyiv, was wanted by Monaco on charges of attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.
‘A Ukrainian military intelligence officer and a former law [enforcement officer] were arrested as suspects in Berezovska’s murder,’ Ukrainian prosecutors said in a statement on Tuesday.
It has now been revealed that the former cop and spy were allegedly transferring funds to Berezovska’s bank accounts and crypto wallets, leading investigators to treat them as ‘individuals potentially involved in the attempted murder in Monaco’, prosecutors said.
During a search of the former law enforcement officer’s residence, investigators also discovered a basement that resembled a torture chamber, the country’s security service (SBU) has claimed.
Footage shows a dingy underground lair strewn with weapons, bottles of liquid and bloodstains splattered across the floor.
A blood-stained torture chamber with axes and hammers has been found in the home of the ex-cop who shot the suspected female Monaco bomber dead
Footage shows a dingy underground lair strewn with weapons, bottles of liquid and bloodstains splattered across the floor
Interpol on Friday named and pictured the bucket hat-wearing suspect in the Monaco bombing
Ukrainian prosecutors alleged that after returning to Kyiv on July 1, Berezovska ‘communicated with her family and two men’.
‘The first is a former employee of law enforcement agencies, the second an active employee of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (HUR MOU).
‘Possessing information that both men had repeatedly made transfers to Berezovska’s crypto and bank accounts, the investigation examined them as persons possibly involved in the attempted murder in Monaco.
‘Urgent investigative actions were carried out, during which the active employee of the HUR MOU reported the murder of Berezovska, which he committed together with the other suspect.
‘The latter reported that he had not informed his leadership about his contacts with Berezovska, transfers of funds to her, or any other of his actions, and had acted on his own initiative.
‘Also, during a search of the residence of the former law enforcement employee, a basement room resembling a torture chamber was found.’
The statement continued: ‘Both suspects have been detained on suspicion of committing murder by prior conspiracy of a group of persons.
‘Based on the testimony of one of the accomplices, an investigative experiment was conducted, and the body of Berezovska was found with gunshot wounds to the head and pistol cartridge casings.’
Ermolaev, a property developer named by Forbes magazine in 2020 as the 39th richest Ukrainian, has a fortune of USD 230million (GBP 172million).
Kyiv has sanctioned him since 2023 over interests in wine and alcohol in Russia-occupied Crimea.
The body of Berezovska was discovered around 11.00pm on July 6, a week after the blast that maimed Ermolaev, his mistress Anna Nasobina, 46, and their 13-year-old son.
Monaco’s deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond said the suspect had been disguised as a man when she carried out the attack.
Ermolaev’s mistress, London-based Ukrainian Anna Nasobina, 46, is still fighting for life, after her legs were amputated due to her injuries.
The couple’s son, Ariel, 13, also sustained minor wounds.
The oligarch – one of Ukraine’s richest men who had given up his citizenship in 2017 – emerged from a coma after the blast.
But it is believed Nasobina remains seriously ill.
Her son Ariel was able to tell police what he remembered from the bombing at the entrance to the residential block he shared with his mother.
Initially it was thought that Ermolaev’s wife, Anna Ermolaev, 56, had been wounded but she was not in the country at the time of the blast, and it is clear her husband was with Nasobina when the bomb exploded.
There were originally suspicions that the bombing could have been linked to a fraudulent network of call centres in Dnipro, Ukraine, allegedly used to carry out large-scale financial scams across Europe.
The Ermolaev family is alleged to have played a significant role in the scheme, with the oligarch’s name reportedly at the centre of a sprawling pan-European investigation into clandestine call centres operating out of Ukraine.
According to sources, the so-called ‘boiler room’ operations defrauded thousands of investors in Germany, Estonia and Ukraine of more than €100million (£86million) between 2019 and 2022, through fake cryptocurrency investment schemes.
The network also allegedly sold fraudulent divorce advice to unsuspecting victims.
Ukrainian law enforcement sources say that French investigators believe the murder attempt may have been orchestrated by members of a criminal network in retaliation.
While Ermolaev reportedly handled the financial side of the operation, it was his 35-year-old son, Artur, who allegedly ran the network.
Artur was arrested by Interpol in Cyprus at the end of 2025 following an Estonian arrest warrant.
After being extradited to Estonia, he was accused of creating a criminal organisation engaged in telephone fraud.
According to Estonian investigators, Artur, along with three other defendants, created fraudulent call centres in Ukraine that ‘offered fictitious investment opportunities’.
He was handed a suspended prison sentence, paid €8.5million, and left Estonia shortly afterwards, according to Meduza. He is now banned from entering Estonia.
Both father and son deny any wrongdoing, saying all of their business activities are above board.
Axes found in the home of the former law enforcement officer who shot the suspected female Monaco bomber dead
A dark staircase leading down to the basement
Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Ermolaev, 58, was reportedly with his London-based lover when he was wounded
Anna Nasobina is in a ‘serious condition’ fighting for her life after being wounded in an explosion in Monaco on Monday
The suspect captured fleeing the scene on CCTV in a bucket hat
Russian Telegram channels backing Vladimir Putin’s war have strongly sought to blame the Ukrainian Security Service [SBU].
A woman resembling Berezovska was filmed outside the ‘Sun’s Palace’ – a lavish apartment block owned by Ermolaev.
It was in the foyer, just before 9pm, that a dumped rucksack exploded after the woman triggered it using a mobile phone.
‘The prime suspect was identified by a witness,’ said an investigating source.
Footage from nearby surveillance cameras showed a figure wearing a black bucket hat and fleeing on foot across the border to France, where there are no checkpoints.
She headed into the town of Beausoleil, and made her way to Italy and then Germany, investigators believe.
‘She is armed and dangerous, and thought to be in the company of accomplices,’ said one source. ‘She should be approached with extreme caution.’
Cameras first picked up the suspect in the area on Monday morning, before she returned to place the bomb, according to the same security sources.
She is thought to have been ‘around 12 metres away’ when she triggered the device, said one.
German police said Friday they had searched the home of a Ukrainian woman suspected of involvement in a bomb attack in Monaco which injured three people, including a Ukrainian-born tycoon.
‘The woman being sought is currently on the run,’ they added in a statement.
Following a request from Monaco authorities, ‘the rented apartment of a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman in the Main-Taunus district was searched on Thursday’, police said.
Police in the central state of Hesse said that ‘in addition, a vehicle used by (the suspect) was searched and seized’, without giving further details.
Police also said that ‘evidence was secured and will be handed over to the Monaco authorities’, without giving further details.
The wounded boy has made a rapid recovery and is currently providing evidence to police and prosecutors.
‘He is telling them exactly what he saw, although clearly his memory is very blurred,’ said a security source.
‘It appears that his mother took the full force of the blast, while he suffered relatively minor burns and shrapnel injuries.’
Nasobina has been described in the past as Ermolaev’s common-law wife.
She is a Ukrainian national who comes from Ermolaev’s home city of Dnipro, having spent a lot of time in England.
Nasobina is listed as a director of Wycombe Square Investments LLP in London, but was frequently in Monaco, particularly during the summer.
In turn, Ermolaev’s wife, Anna Ermolaev, uses a high-security family villa in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the nearby French Riviera resort town, which is the second most expensive residential location in the world, after Monaco.
The suspect was likely using a so-called burner phone – one that can be bought relatively cheaply, without providing any kind of identification.
Such phones are frequently used by lawbreakers and then disposed of once a crime has been committed.
Police and French Army helicopters with searchlights and numerous drones have all been seen in the search zone over the days and nights since the attack.
