A powerful explosion tore through the entrance of a residential building in Monaco late on Monday evening, injuring three people as they arrived home. According to Monegasque authorities, the blast occurred shortly after 9 p.m. local time on Rue Révérend Père Louis Frolla, near the border with France. A man and a woman, both in their fifties, sustained life-threatening injuries, while a 13-year-old boy suffered lighter wounds. Emergency services transported the victims to hospitals in nearby Nice, where the woman remained in critical condition on Tuesday.

Monaco’s prosecutor general, Stéphane Thibault, told a press conference that the explosion was caused by a device concealed in a bag or package left in the building’s lobby. He said the investigation is being treated as attempted murder, but explicitly ruled out a terrorist classification. Surveillance footage showed a suspect placing the item moments before the victims arrived, then fleeing on foot towards the French commune of Beausoleil. A joint manhunt involving Monegasque police, French gendarmes, and two helicopters was underway on Tuesday, with authorities saying the suspect had not yet been apprehended.

Officials declined to confirm the identities of the wounded, but multiple French and Ukrainian media outlets, citing sources close to the investigation, identified the man as Vadym Yermolaiev, a 58-year-old Ukrainian-born businessman and Cypriot national. Yermolaiev, a former real estate and alcohol magnate from Dnipro, has been subject to Ukrainian sanctions since December 2023 over allegations of continuing business operations in Russian-occupied Crimea. He renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019 and had been living in Monaco, where he was part of a group of wealthy Ukrainian exiles dubbed the “Monaco Battalion” by local press.

French newspaper Le Figaro, quoting investigative sources, reported that detectives are prioritising a line of inquiry involving Ukraine’s SBU security service, though this has not been confirmed by any official body. The Ukrainian embassy in Paris said it was verifying the nationality of those involved. Yermolaiev’s representatives, through the Silver Eye agency, condemned the attack as “an act of unimaginable barbarism” and denied any political affiliations, stating he has been solely a businessman and investor for over two decades.

The principality’s Prince Albert II described the incident as a “heinous crime” that had shocked the community. Monaco’s minister of state, Christophe Mirmand, noted that the family had shown no signs of concern before the blast and that authorities were not aware of any prior threats against them. The investigation remains in its early stages, with forensic teams examining the device, which reportedly contained bolts and metal fragments, as the search for the suspect continues on both sides of the Franco-Monegasque border.