The attack targeted Jermolayev, who, paradoxically, suffered a much lighter injury than his wife. He only has burns and injuries from bomb fragments. He was conscious when he was taken to the hospital, writes the website of the newspaper Ukrainska pravda.
His 13-year-old son was also injured. The explosion threw him off and he also suffered burns and one of the screws with which the bomb was filled got stuck in his leg. Another two people suffered shock and were treated on the spot, writes the nice-matin website.
Investigators suggest that the bombing was organized by the mafia and is related to illegal call centers focused on financial fraud. The callers pretend to be bankers or the police and have robbed people all over Europe. In recent years, the police managed to eliminate such organized groups in Odesa, Dnipro and Kyiv.
Local media, citing witnesses, write that the suspect is a man dressed in a dark sweater and cap. He was recorded by cameras in the city of Beausoleil, where the police lost him in a dead end. During the night on Tuesday, the area was also searched with the help of a French gendarmerie helicopter, but so far in vain.
Photo: Profimedia.cz
Suspicious man caught on city camera
Vadym Jermolajev is a businessman from Dnipro, the founder of the trade and production corporation Alef and one of the largest developers. Previously, Forbes magazine regularly ranked him among the 100 richest people in Ukraine. Later, Yermolayev renounced Ukrainian citizenship in favor of Cypriot citizenship.
In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed personal sanctions on the businessman for a period of 10 years. The reason was his alcohol business in Crimea and the fact that his companies paid taxes to the Russian budget.
In addition, Jermolayev was investigated in the Monaco Battalion case. The journalists of the daily Ukrainska pravda revealed dozens of businessmen, politicians, oligarchs and other influential personalities who settled on the Côte d’Azur. They all left Ukraine at a time when the war was already raging. The authorities started criminal proceedings against all of them due to illegal border crossing.
