The Mechanics of the Hit
Vitalii Zhykovych speaks to the BBC from a prison cell, his voice carrying the measured cadence of a man who believes he is a protagonist in a geopolitical drama. He describes the operation against millionaire Vadym Yermolayev not as a crime, but as a surgical strike. In Zhykovych's version of events, the bomb was a tool of patriotic necessity, aimed at a man he claims was funding the annexation of Crimea. By framing the attack as a state-sanctioned HUR (Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine) operation, Zhykovych attempts to transform a violent assault on a public street into a legitimate act of war.
This narrative serves a dual purpose. It grants Zhykovych a sense of martyrdom and provides a moral shield for the carnage left behind. But the physics of the blast did not distinguish between "legitimate targets" and bystanders. The explosion shattered glass and concrete in one of the world's most affluent enclaves, leaving behind a trail of trauma that no amount of patriotic rhetoric can erase. Most visceral was the injury to a 13-year-old child, a piece of collateral damage whose life was irrevocably altered by a conflict they did not choose and likely did not understand.
The Erasure of Anastasia Berezovska
While the millionaire survived and the handler sits in a cell, Anastasia Berezovska exists only as a footnote. She was the operative on the ground, the hands that placed the device. For Zhykovych and his unseen superiors, Berezovska was a disposable asset. The trajectory of her life ended not in a courtroom or a debriefing room, but in a summary execution in the woods. Her death was the final step of the operation: the scrubbing of the evidence.
The disparity in outcomes is stark. Yermolayev lived; Zhykovych negotiated a media platform; Berezovska was liquidated. This is the standard operating procedure for the "freelancers" of modern proxy conflicts. These individuals are recruited for their desperation or their perceived invisibility, used to perform the high-risk labor of clandestine warfare, and then deleted when their utility expires. Berezovska was not a soldier in any recognized army; she was a tool, discarded once the tool became a liability.
The Gray Zone of the Target
The narrative of a "pure" victim is equally thin. Vadym Yermolayev may have been the target of a state-sponsored hit, but the money flowing through his orbit is rarely clean. Evidence from Estonian courts reveals a disturbing connection: Yermolayev's son was convicted in connection with "offisy"—the slang term for sprawling scam centers that fleece thousands of people globally through fraudulent investment schemes. These centers operate in a legal vacuum, often protected by the same state actors who claim to fight them.
This intersection suggests that the Monaco bombing was less about national security and more about a collision within a criminal underworld. When state intelligence agencies like the HUR employ freelancers to target wealthy figures, they are often operating in a gray zone where political goals merge with organized crime. The claim that Yermolayev was funding a war effort may be true, but it may also be a convenient shroud for a simple score-settling exercise between competing factions of the Eurasian shadow economy.
The Ethics of Deniability
Modern intelligence operations rely on the concept of plausible deniability. By using non-state actors—contractors, mercenaries, or coerced assets—governments can project power without the diplomatic cost of an official attack. This system creates a class of "ghosts" who operate without the protection of the Geneva Conventions or the legal safeguards of a national military. They have no rank, no pension, and no right to a trial.
Zhykovych's attempt to claim the "patriotic" label from prison is a desperate bid for legitimacy. He wants to be seen as a soldier of the state rather than a criminal accomplice. However, the state's silence on his claims reveals the true nature of the relationship. The moment the operation failed to remain secret, the bond between the handler and the agency dissolved. In the world of disposable assets, loyalty is a one-way street that ends in a shallow grave or a lonely cell.
The Cost of Shadow War
The tragedy of the Monaco bombing is not found in the mystery of who ordered the hit, but in the dehumanization required to execute it. From the 13-year-old caught in the blast to the operative executed in the
