The case surrounding the murder of 39-year-old Anastasia Berezovska, accused of orchestrating the car bomb attack in Monaco that killed Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Germolaev, has taken a fresh turn after one of the two suspects reversed his confession in court.

Vladyslav Reut, an officer with Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR), had originally admitted to killing Berezovska and led investigators to the location where her remains were buried. On Thursday, however, he told the court he wanted “to tell the truth” and named his co-defendant, Vitalii Zhykovych, a former officer with Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), as the actual killer.

Prosecutors told the court that Berezovska had travelled to Ukraine two days after the Monaco explosion, crossing the border from Poland by bus, well before she was publicly identified as the prime suspect in Germolaev’s death. Investigators say they identified Zhykovych, 50, and Reut, 34, by analysing data from Berezovska’s phone, and later traced cash and cryptocurrency transfers the two men had sent to her accounts.

“I would never intentionally murder an innocent civilian”

In his revised account, Reut told the court that he and Zhykovych had picked up Berezovska in a BMW on the highway to Kyiv after she said she needed to go into hiding over an unspecified criminal case. “I fought enemy combatants in defence of my country. I would never intentionally murder an innocent civilian,” he said.

According to his testimony, Zhykovych produced a modified Makarov pistol from his backpack during the journey, telling Reut it was simply a precaution “in case she panicked.” The three later stopped in the village of Yuriv, where Reut claims Zhykovych ordered him to shoot Berezovska, saying, “It’s either her or us.” Reut says Zhykovych then fired the fatal shots himself, four in total, before the two men buried her body and disposed of the weapon, along with her belongings, in a nearby lake.

Asked why he had confessed to a killing he now denies carrying out, Reut said he had been threatened by Zhykovych, who allegedly warned him: “If anything happens to me, your relatives will be in danger.”

Defence rejects account, hints at “Russian connection”

Zhykovych’s lawyer dismissed Reut’s revised testimony, arguing it was implausible that a private citizen could order an active HUR officer to commit murder. He described his client as a “patriot” who had fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and later defended the Kyiv region following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, adding: “He doesn’t want to go to prison. I understand that.”

The defence lawyer also suggested a possible “Russian connection” to the case, noting that Ukrainian intelligence officers have previously been recruited by Moscow, though he presented no evidence to support the claim. “Unfortunately, we’ve had quite a few such traitors,” he said.

Prosecutors maintain that the two men acted “jointly and in a coordinated manner” and have charged both with first-degree murder. The court rejected bail applications from both defendants, ordering them held in custody until the investigation concludes.