Ukrainian Intelligence Officer and Ex-Security Agent Charged with Murder, Both Denied Bail

Vladyslav Reut, a 34-year-old officer in Ukraine's military intelligence agency GUR, denied in a Kyiv court on Thursday that he murdered Anastasiia Berezovska and blamed his co-defendant instead. Reut, who days earlier led investigators to Berezovska's grave in woods west of Kyiv, told the court he "categorically denied" committing the murder.

He said Vitalii Zhykovych, 50, a former SBU security service officer, produced a modified Makarov pistol during a drive, fired four shots on a forest path near Yuriv, and threw the weapon into a lake.

He added that he had fought enemy combatants while defending his country and would never intentionally murder an innocent civilian woman. Berezovska arrived in Ukraine by bus from Poland two days after an explosion near Monaco that targeted multimillionaire Vadym Yermolayev. Investigators identified cash and cryptocurrency transfers from both men to her accounts.

Reut initially confessed to the shooting before revising his account. The prosecutor said the two men acted "jointly and in a coordinated fashion" and both have been charged with premeditated murder. Zhykovych's lawyer rejected Reut's revised account and described his client as a patriot who fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday evening that he would have "additional relevant reports" to share in the coming days. The judge denied bail to both men and remanded them in custody. Yermolayev made his fortune in cognac and real estate, renounced his Ukrainian citizenship years ago, and was sanctioned by Kyiv for continuing business in Crimea after Russia took control of the region.

The motive for the Monaco blast remains under investigation.