Polish PM pledges memorial to victims of WW2 'genocide' by Ukrainian nationalists

A Ukrainian intelligence agent who confessed to killing the woman suspected of trying to assassinate a multimillionaire and his family in Monaco last week, has now claimed he did not pull the trigger.In court in Kyiv for a custody hearing on Thursday, Vladyslav Reut – who a few days ago led investigators to Anastasiia Berezovska's grave in the woods – said that he "categorically denied" committing her murder and blamed his alleged accomplice instead.This murky case is capturing attention because Reut is an active and decorated officer of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, GUR, and his co-defendant Vitalii Zhykovych worked for the SBU security service until recently.On Thursday evening President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would have "additional relevant reports" to share in the coming days.But the motive for the Monaco blast that targeted Vadim Yermolayev remains unclear.​The businessman, who made his money in cognac and real estate, had renounced his Ukrainian citizenship some years ago. He has since been sanctioned by Kyiv for continuing to do business in Crimea after it was taken by Russia.​Now his would-be assassin has been murdered herself.The two suspects were brought into court for separate hearings with their hands cuffed, surrounded by heavily armed security officers in balaclavas.Both kept their hoods up throughout proceedings and their faces covered by masks so large only their eyes were still visible. They sat hunched inside the glass courtroom cage for most of the hearings, backs to the line of TV cameras.In court, the prosecutor clarified that Anastasiia Berezovska had arrived in Ukraine two days after the blast in Monaco, and before she had been identified as the prime suspect in the case.She crossed by bus from Poland.Once alerted to the allegations against her, investigators seem to have honed in quickly on Zhykovych, 50, and Reut, 34, using Berezovska's phone records.They then identified cash and cryptocurrency transfers that the two had made to her accounts.Straight away, Reut appears to have confessed to shooting Berezovska.He then took investigators to the spot where he had buried her body in the woods west of Kyiv, in a grave covered with branches.But in court just days later, the GUR agent announced that he wanted to "tell the truth". He then shifted the blame squarely onto Zhykovych."I fought enemy combatants while defending my country," he stressed. "I would never intentionally murder an innocent civilian woman."In his revised version, he claimed that the two men had driven in his BMW to pick up Berezovska on the highway to Kyiv because she "needed to be hidden" in connection with "a criminal matter".He doesn't clarify what that was.On the way, Reut says Zhykovych produced a modified Makarov pistol from his rucksack and loaded it. When he protested, he says Zhykovych claimed it was just a precaution "in case she panics".After collecting Berezovska he says he was directed to drive towards the village of Yuriv where all three got out on a forest path.There Reut says Zhykovych ordered him to shoot, saying: "It's either her or us."In Reut's telling, ​Zhykovych then killed Berezovska himself, with four shots, before the pair dug a grave and hid her body.He says Zhykovych then threw the gun into a nearby lake along with her belongings.But if Reut didn't shoot her, why would he confess? He now says he was threatened by Zhykovych. "He said, 'If anything happens to me, your relatives are in danger'," he claims.Zhykovych's lawyer rejected that new account.Shaven-headed and fiddling incessantly with wooden rosary beads, Anatoliy Ivanov described his client as a low-level former SBU officer and dismissed the idea that a mere civilian could have ordered a serving HUR member to do anything, let alone carry out a murder.He called Zhykovych a "patriot" who had fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014, like himself, and then "actively defended" the Kyiv region after 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion."He do

The explosion happened just as three residents were entering, a couple and a 13-year-old.The suspect, pictured on CCTV cameras wearing a dark bucket hat, was then seen fleeing towards the French commune of Beausoleil.Interpol's photo of Berezovska shows a woman with dark shoulder-length hair, with the notice adding she has a tattoo on her right arm which is "possibly" depicting a snake.Monaco's prosecutor thanked police from Monaco and France for their co-operation which made it possible "to identify, in a particularly short time, the person suspected of having carried out the attack".Meanwhile in Germany, Hessian Police confirmed in a statement that special forces searched the rented apartment of a 39-year-old Ukrainian woman in the Main-Taunus district on Thursday.A vehicle she used was also searched and seized."Evidence has been secured and will be handed over to the Monegasque authorities. The Hessian security authorities are supporting the Monegasque authorities in their investigations and are in close contact with them," the statement said."The woman being sought is currently on the run. An international arrest warrant has been issued."Prince Albert II of Monaco has described the incident as a "heinous crime".The three victims, who included a 13-year-old, have been treated in hospital.The adults were seriously wounded and taken to the Nice University Hospital (CHU), while the child, who suffered minor injuries, was admitted in a non-critical condition to the Lenval children's hospital in Nice.On Wednesday, the man was no longer in a life-or-death situation, but the woman's condition had not yet stabilised, AFP reported. The victims' identities have not been confirmed by Monaco authorities, but according to local reports, the attack targeted Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner and his son.Yermolaiev, 58, is a wealthy real estate developer, who has been living in Monaco. He is a Cypriot citizen after renouncing his Ukrainian citizenship in 2019.He has big interests in the wine and alcohol business in Russian-annexed Crimea, and since 2023 has been the subject of sanctions imposed by the government in Kyiv.He was named the 39th richest Ukrainian by Forbes magazine in 2020, with a fortune of $230m (£173.8m).