A bomb exploded near 9 p.m. on June 29, 2026, at the entrance of Sun's Palace luxury residential building on Rue Révérend Père Louis Frolla in Monaco near the French border. The device, a package bomb filled with bolts, screws, and shrapnel, was placed at the entrance by a male suspect who fled on foot to the nearby French town of Beausoleil [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Three people were seriously injured in the blast: Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Yermolaiev, an adult woman believed to be his partner or wife, and a 13-year-old child thought to be related to them. The two adults are in critical condition, while the child’s injuries are less severe. The injured were evacuated to a hospital in Nice, France [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Yermolaiev is a Cypriot citizen originally from Dnipro, Ukraine, and a billionaire real estate developer with an estimated net worth of $230 million as of 2020. He has been under Ukrainian sanctions since December 2023 over alleged business ties to Russian-occupied Crimea [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Reports indicate the woman suffered severe leg injuries, but Yermolaiev’s wife Anna denied she was the injured woman and said the child is not their offspring. She stated the family is living under extreme fear and cooperating with investigators [1, 4, 7, 10].
Monaco authorities described the bombing as the first deliberate bomb attack in the principality's history, known for low crime rates and high security. Monaco’s State Minister Christophe Mirmand said, “To my knowledge, this is the first such incident in Monaco’s history.” He later described the event as a "deliberate explosion" rather than a mere attack [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Prince Albert II condemned the act as a “horrible crime” and a “detestable action” [3].
Monaco and French police are jointly investigating and are pursuing the suspect who fled to France [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. The motive appears targeted at Yermolaiev due to his controversial business ties and sanctions, though officials have not officially confirmed the full identities of all victims or motive [3, 8, 9, 10].
