A member of Ukraine’s military intelligence service (GUR), facing charges over the murder of Anastasiia Berezovska, who was a suspect in the case involving an attempted assassination of a multimillionaire businessman in Monaco, has given new testimony in court. He now denies carrying out the killing and places the blame on his alleged accomplice.
At a hearing on a pre-trial detention measure in a Kyiv court, Vladyslav Reut said that 39-year-old Berezovska had not been killed by him. The statement contradicts his earlier confession made just a few days earlier, when he had also shown investigators the location of her grave in a forested area west of the Ukrainian capital.
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According to his latest account, the killer was Vitalii Zhykovych, a former employee of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Reut claimed that Zhykovych first threatened him and then personally shot the victim four times before the two of them hid the body together.
The GUR agent said the reason he initially took responsibility for the crime was linked to threats against his family. “I fought against the enemy to defend my country. I would never knowingly kill an innocent civilian woman,” he told the court.
Meanwhile, Zhykovych’s defense rejected those claims as unfounded. His lawyer said his client, a former low-ranking SBU officer and veteran of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, had not committed the murder. He also questioned the claim that such a person could give orders to an active military intelligence officer.
Prosecutors allege that both defendants acted in coordination with each other and have charged them with premeditated murder. According to investigators, their connection to the victim is supported by phone records, as well as money and cryptocurrency transfers to her accounts.
Anastasiia Berezovska had been identified as a suspect in the investigation into the attempted assassination of businessman Vadym Yermolayev in Monaco. Authorities say she entered Ukraine from Poland two days after the explosion, before the investigation led to the arrest of the two suspects.
