Vadym Yermolaiev, a Ukrainian-born businessman wounded in a parcel bomb attack in Monaco, is a sanctioned multi-millionaire with a reportedly long list of enemies in his homeland.
Kyiv alleges the 58-year-old maintained an alcohol business in annexed Crimea — paying taxes to Russia even after it invaded Ukraine.
A source told AFP that people would have been lining up to gun him down in Dnipro, the industrial city where he made his wealth.
The construction magnate, who obtained Cypriot citizenship in the 2010s and has lived in Monaco since at least 2021, denies charges of operating in Crimea.
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 and used it as a springboard to invade eight years later.
Described as “ambitious” by those who know him, Yermolaiev built his fortune in Dnipro’s construction sector, becoming on the of city’s largest property developers through his Alef conglomerate.
He is one of many post-Soviet businessmen who capitalised on the chaos that followed the USSR’s 1991 collapse to amass huge wealth rapidly — often through questionable means.
He “started from scratch” and “changed the face of the city” — said one Dnipro businessman who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
But he was not known for keeping people on side.
“He made so many enemies that they could be lining up waiting to shoot him,” the businessman added, without elaborating.
In 2021, the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $220 million — ranking him the country’s 45th richest person.
Crimea connection
With his distinctive thick curled black hair, Yermolaiev has had a mixed relationship with Ukraine.
He condemned the Russian invasion and has voiced support for the army.
“I love our Ukraine … after the war, I intend to grow my businesses in Ukraine,” he said in one interview.
But asked by Forbes in 2017 why he opted for Cypriot citizenship, he told the outlet: “Why? I want to have international protection. Ukrainian justice is, to put it mildly, not ideal, and taxation is not objective.”
A father of four and one of the sponsors of Dnipro’s prominent Jewish community, Yermolaiev said in 2017 he had given up his Ukrainian passport.
His son, Artur Yermolaiev, was convicted of fraud in Estonia earlier this year, where he pled guilty to running a fake investment phone scam out of Ukraine that stole around 100 million euros, according to media reports.
In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed 10-year sanctions on Vadym Yermolaiev, who was accused of trading wine and spirits in annexed Crimea.
He denied the allegations, telling a Ukrainian news agency in 2024: “I do not own or manage any company in Crimea. It is legally and conceptually impossible.”
He also said he had donated 83 hryvnias ($2 million) to Ukraine’s war effort since the start of the Russian invasion and has travelled to the country regularly.
Still, in 2022 he was targeted by the domestic media as part of a group of oligarchs and businessmen who had fled the country before the Russian invasion — sardonically dubbed the “Monaco Battalion.”
A Russian missile strike on Dnipro airport later destroyed his private jet.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
