Ukrainian prosecutors say they discovered a basement resembling a torture chamber, complete with axes, hammers, bottles of unidentified liquid, and bloodstains, at the residence of a former law enforcement officer arrested in the killing of Anastasiia Berezovska, the 39-year-old Ukrainian woman identified as the prime suspect in last month's parcel bombing in Monaco.
Berezovska's body was found near Kyiv at approximately 11:00 p.m. on July 6, bearing gunshot wounds to the head and pistol cartridge casings nearby. She had returned to the Ukrainian capital on July 1, just days after Interpol issued a Red Notice naming her as the suspected bomber.
Two men now sit in Ukrainian custody: one a former law enforcement officer, the other an active employee of Ukraine's military intelligence directorate, known as HUR MOU. Prosecutors say both were detained on suspicion of committing murder by prior conspiracy. Neither suspect has been publicly named.
A spy, a killing, and a gruesome discovery
The case reads like a Cold War thriller set in the age of cryptocurrency. Ukrainian prosecutors stated Tuesday that investigators had traced repeated transfers from both suspects to Berezovska's crypto wallets and bank accounts, which led them to examine the two men as persons possibly involved in the Monaco attack itself.
Then came a confession. Prosecutors said the active HUR MOU officer "reported the murder of Berezovska, which he committed together with the other suspect." An investigative experiment based on the accomplice's testimony led authorities to Berezovska's body.
The intelligence officer reportedly told investigators he had not informed his leadership about his contacts with Berezovska, the fund transfers, or any of his other actions, and had acted on his own initiative. Whether that claim holds up remains an open question, one Ukrainian prosecutors have not publicly resolved.
What investigators found at the former law enforcement officer's residence only deepened the mystery. Prosecutors described a basement room "resembling a torture chamber," containing axes, hammers, bottles of liquid, and bloodstains. The Washington Examiner reported that both suspects have been detained on suspicion of murder by prior conspiracy, with the SBU, Ukraine's Security Service, confirming the grim basement discovery.
The Monaco bombing that started it all
Berezovska was wanted by Monaco for a parcel bomb attack that ripped through the foyer of "Sun's Palace," a lavish apartment block, just before 9:00 p.m. last month. The blast injured three people: Ukrainian property developer Vadym Ermolaev, 58; his companion Anna Nasobina, 46; and their 13-year-old son, Ariel.
Nasobina, a London-based Ukrainian national who serves as director of Wycombe Square Investments LLP, lost both legs in the explosion and remains in critical condition. Ermolaev, who Forbes ranked in 2020 as the 39th richest Ukrainian with a fortune of $230 million, emerged from a coma but his current condition beyond that has not been disclosed.
Ariel, who sustained relatively minor burns and shrapnel injuries, made a rapid recovery and has been providing evidence to police. An unnamed security source described his account: "He is telling them exactly what he saw, although clearly his memory is very blurred." The source added that "his mother took the full force of the blast."
The case has drawn attention to the murky world of intelligence operations and covert actors operating across European borders, a dynamic that has surfaced in unrelated contexts, including recent international prisoner exchanges involving Russia and Belarus.
A suspect disguised as a man
Monaco's deputy prosecutor Morgan Raymond stated that Berezovska had been disguised as a man when she carried out the attack. Cameras first picked up the suspect in the area on the morning of the bombing before she returned to place the device.
An unnamed security source said Berezovska was believed to have been roughly 12 meters away when she triggered the bomb. The same source described her as "armed and dangerous, and thought to be in the company of accomplices."
After the blast, Berezovska fled Monaco on foot into Beausoleil, France, a border crossing that requires no checkpoint. From there, she transited through Italy and Germany before returning to Ukraine. German police in Hesse searched her rented apartment in the Main-Taunus district on Thursday at Monaco's request, seizing a vehicle she had used and securing evidence for Monaco authorities.
The New York Post reported that investigators believe the sophistication of the plot indicates Berezovska did not act alone, suggesting possible connections to organized crime or intelligence services. Monaco filed charges against her for attempted murder, placing an explosive device in a public place with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy.
By the time Interpol named and pictured Berezovska on Friday, German police acknowledged what was already apparent: "The woman being sought is currently on the run." She would be dead within days.
The target: a sanctioned oligarch with a tangled past
Ermolaev's own history adds layers of complication. The wealthy property developer gave up his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017. Since 2023, Kyiv has sanctioned him over business interests in wine and alcohol in Russia-occupied Crimea. Ermolaev denies any wrongdoing and says all his business activities are above board.
His wife, Anna Ermolaev, 56, was not in Monaco at the time of the blast. The family maintains a high-security villa in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera, described as the second most expensive residential location in the world, after Monaco itself.
Ermolaev's 35-year-old son, Artur, carries his own legal baggage. Estonian investigators accused him of creating a criminal organization engaged in telephone fraud that allegedly defrauded investors in Germany, Estonia, and Ukraine of more than €100 million between 2019 and 2022. Interpol arrested Artur in Cyprus at the end of 2025 on an Estonian warrant. He was extradited, received a suspended sentence, paid €8.5 million, and left Estonia, where he is now banned from entering. Like his father, Artur denies wrongdoing.
The intelligence dimensions of this case, a military intelligence officer confessing to a killing, a former law enforcement officer with a torture chamber in his basement, and crypto transfers connecting them to a bombing suspect, recall the kinds of covert operations and rogue actors that surface periodically in global security matters, such as the FBI's pursuit of a former Air Force intelligence agent who allegedly defected to Iran.
What remains unanswered
Ukrainian prosecutors have not publicly stated a motive for Berezovska's killing. Were the two suspects silencing a co-conspirator? Acting on orders from above? Settling a private dispute? The confession from the HUR MOU officer, that he acted without his leadership's knowledge, is a claim, not a verified fact. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they believe it.
Equally unclear is whether the fund transfers to Berezovska's accounts were connected to the Monaco bombing itself or to some separate arrangement. Prosecutors noted that the transfers led investigators to examine the two men as possibly involved in the Monaco attack, but they have not confirmed a direct link.
Russian-language Telegram channels sought to blame the SBU for the bombing, though no evidence presented by prosecutors supports that claim. The broader question, whether Ukrainian state actors had any role in the Monaco attack or only in its aftermath, remains open.
The case spans Monaco, France, Italy, Germany, Cyprus, Estonia, and Ukraine. It involves an Interpol Red Notice, a sanctioned property developer, a woman disguised as a man planting a bomb, a 13-year-old boy caught in the blast, a military intelligence confession, and a basement full of axes and bloodstains.
When a bombing suspect turns up dead with bullet holes in her head, and the man who allegedly helped kill her kept a torture chamber in his basement, the questions don't stop at who pulled the trigger. They start there.
