Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A Ukrainian woman suspected of carrying out a bombing that injured a Ukrainian-born tycoon in Monaco was shot dead in Kyiv by a serving military intelligence officer who claimed he had acted on his own initiative, according to prosecutors.
Ukraine’s prosecutor-general’s office said on Tuesday that law enforcement officers had discovered the body of 39-year-old Anastasia Berezovska at around 9pm Kyiv time on Monday. Her body had gunshot wounds to the head and spent pistol cartridge casings were found nearby.
Ukrainian authorities arrested two people in connection with her death — an active officer in Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (HUR) and a former law enforcement officer.
“The current HUR officer admitted to the murder of Berezovska, stating that he had committed the killing together with the other suspect,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
“He also stated that he had not informed his superiors about his contacts with Berezovska, the transfers of money to her, or any of his other actions, and that he had acted on his own initiative.”
The circumstances of Berezovska’s death and the suspects arrested in connection with it are likely to raise uncomfortable questions for Kyiv — not least over its efforts to persuade EU partners that it is ridding itself of organised crime and corruption as part of its accession bid.
HUR’s operatives are known for carrying out secret missions behind enemy lines and have taken credit for or been suspected of numerous assassinations of Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainian turncoats during the war.
Authorities in Monaco identified Berezovska as the primary suspect in last week’s attack that injured the tycoon Vadym Iermolaiev and issued an Interpol Red Notice seeking her arrest. The notice described her as a Ukrainian national with dark hair who spoke German and had a snake tattoo on her right arm from shoulder to elbow.
The notice said Monaco was seeking her on charges including attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public area with criminal intent and participation in a criminal conspiracy.
Berezovska had disguised herself as a man to conceal her identity as she planted a booby-trapped explosive device shortly before 9pm last Monday at a residential building in Monaco.
According to Monaco’s deputy prosecutor, the suspect fled the principality on foot into neighbouring France before continuing by car towards Germany. Investigators said the route passed through several European countries, including Italy.
She arrived back in Ukraine on July 1, according to Ukrainian prosecutors, who said she contacted her family and the two suspects.
“Having information that both men had repeatedly transferred funds to Berezovska’s cryptocurrency and bank accounts, investigators examined them as persons potentially involved in the attempted murder in Monaco,” the prosecutor’s office added.
Both suspects have been detained on suspicion of committing murder by prior conspiracy as a group.
During a search of the home of the former law enforcement officer, investigators also discovered a basement resembling a torture chamber.
A video published by prosecutors showed a dark basement with hatchets and axes resting against a wall and a green tarpaulin laid out on the floor. Berezovska’s body is not seen in the video.
Based on the testimony of one of the accomplices, investigators conducted a crime scene reconstruction, during which Berezovska’s body was found with gunshot wounds to the head, along with spent pistol cartridge casings.
Ukraine’s national and Kyiv police departments and HUR did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ukrainian prosecutors said all information currently available to Ukrainian law enforcement authorities had been provided to the investigative authorities in Monaco and they were working closely with the law enforcement authorities there.
Iermolaiev was hospitalised after the bomb blast along with a woman and a child. Iermolaiev’s wife, Anna Iermolaieva, previously told the FT that her family was co-operating with authorities. She said she had not been in Monaco at the time of the incident and declined to provide further information about the victims.
Iermolaiev came up in the rough-and-tumble 1990s and 2000s to be one of the country’s wealthiest figures, but later told Forbes Ukraine he had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017, holding only a Cypriot passport since.
“I want to have international protection. The Ukrainian judicial system, to put it mildly, is not ideal, and the tax system is not objective,” he told Forbes, in explaining his decision to leave Ukraine.
Source:
www.ft.com