2 Charged With Killing Monaco Bombing Suspect

Ukraine's twisting Monaco bombing saga has become more difficult to untangle. In court on Thursday, a Ukrainian man reported to have served in his country's military intelligence was charged with murdering the woman French authorities say planted a bomb that injured oligarch Vadym Iermolaiev and his family outside their Monaco apartment in June, the Guardian reports. Prosecutors say 39-year-old Anastasiia Berezovska, disguised as a man, fled Monaco through France and Italy and returned to Ukraine on July 1; her body was later found in woods near Kyiv.

The SBU security service says suspect Vladyslav Reut and an ex-police officer, Vitalii Zhykovych, met Berezovska, paid her through bank and crypto accounts, then took her at gunpoint to a forest where they shot and buried her. Reut blamed Zhykovych in court and asked for a polygraph test; Zhykovych denies the claims. "I fought enemy combatants while defending my country," Reut said, per the BBC. "I would never intentionally murder an innocent civilian woman." His reported links to Ukraine's GUR military intelligence have turned the case into a political headache for President Volodymyr Zelensky, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling for a thorough explanation and Ukrainian lawmakers warning that allies will expect clarity on whether there was a rogue criminal plot or something closer to the state.