Vadim Ermolaev, who was wounded yesterday in a bomb attack in Monaco, is a wealthy businessman from Dnipro, Ukraine. He is currently under sanctions by Kiev over his business activities in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, BTA reported, citing AFP.
The 58-year-old Ermolaev received Cypriot citizenship in 2010 and has lived in Monaco since at least 2021. He amassed his fortune in Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk) - a large industrial and university city in Ukraine, having developed successfully in the construction sector.
Today, Dnipro is located about 100 kilometers from the front line. The city is key to defending against the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
Yermolaev is among the many businessmen in the post-Soviet space who amassed rapid wealth, taking advantage of the chaotic collapse of the USSR in 1991. He began by building commercial and residential buildings and gradually became one of the main investors in real estate in the Dnieper. His consortium "Alef" also produces construction materials, including concrete, and is active in the agri-food sector.
In 2021, the Ukrainian edition of "Forbes" magazine (Forbes) estimates his fortune at $220 million and places him in 45th place among the richest people in Ukraine.
A father of four and one of the financial supporters of the large Jewish community in Dnipro, Ermolaev told the Ukrainian bureau of "Forbes" that he renounced his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017 in favor of Cypriot.
However, he emphasizes that he continues to work in Ukraine and visit it regularly, including after 2022. "Why? I want international protection. The Ukrainian judicial system, to put it mildly, is not ideal, and taxation is not objective," he told the media, explaining his choice of a Cypriot passport. "I love our Ukraine. "After the war, I intend to develop my business in Ukraine," the oligarch added.
After 2010, obtaining Cypriot citizenship was a common practice among wealthy Russians and Ukrainians who sought greater legal security or wanted to transfer their capital abroad.
According to several media reports, his personal plane was destroyed in a Russian strike on the Dnipro airport.
In December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on Yermolaev for a period of ten years. Kiev accuses him of continuing to trade in wine and spirits in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and thus paying taxes to the Russian state during the war against Ukraine.
In Dnipro, a local businessman described him as an "ambitious entrepreneur, started from scratch" who has transformed the city through multifaceted construction projects. At the same time, the businessman, who requested anonymity, noted that Ermolayev also has a controversial reputation. "He had many enemies, to the point that over the years we could gather a number of people ready to shoot him", he told AFP.
Ermolayev himself denies the accusations. In an interview with a Ukrainian news agency in 2024, he stated: "I do not own or manage any business in Crimea. This is legally and conceptually impossible". He also claims to have contributed 83 million hryvnias, or about 1.6 million euros, to the Ukrainian war effort.
In 2022, a few months after the start of the Russian invasion, Ermolaev was spotted in Monaco getting out of a "Bentley", joining what the Ukrainian press ironically called the "Monaco Battalion" - a group of oligarchs and businessmen who left the country after the war began and settled on the shores of the Mediterranean.