There is no end in sight to the spy-thriller-style saga surrounding the murder of 39-year-old Anastasia Berezovska, who was accused of the explosion in Monaco that claimed the life of Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Germolaev.
The Ukrainian secret service (GUR) agent, Vladislav Reut, who had initially confessed to killing Berezovska, now claims that he was not the one who pulled the trigger and says that it was his co-defendant, Vitaly Zikovich, who until recently worked for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)
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According to the prosecutor, the 39-year-old Ukrainian woman had crossed the border from Poland by bus, with Ukrainian authorities targeting 50-year-old Zhykovych and 34-year-old Reut by analyzing data from Berezovska’s cell phone, and subsequently they traced cash and cryptocurrency transfers that the two men had made to her accounts.
Although he was the one who had led the police to the spot where they had buried Berezovska’s remains, in court the GUR agent stated that he wanted “to tell the truth,” accusing Ziković of the murder.
“I fought enemy combatants in defense of my country. I would never deliberately murder an innocent civilian,” said Reut, describing in the new version of events he presented to the court that they had initially picked up Berezovska in their BMW on the highway to Kyiv because “she needed to go into hiding” in connection with “a criminal case”—he did not specify what that case was.
Murder by four bullets
According to him, during the drive, Ziković took a modified Makarov pistol out of his backpack and cocked it. When Reut protested, he claims that Zikovic told him it was merely a precaution “in case she panicked.”
After they picked up Berezovska, Reut says he was ordered to drive to the village of Yuriv, where all three got out of the car onto a path through the forest. There, according to Reut, Zikovic ordered him to shoot, saying, “It’s either her or us.”
According to the Ukrainian intelligence agent’s account, Ziković ultimately killed Berezovska with four shots, before the two of them dug a grave to hide her body. According to Reut, it was Ziković who threw the gun into a nearby lake along with her personal belongings.
When asked why he confessed even though he wasn’t the one who shot the 39-year-old Ukrainian woman, Reut said he had been receiving threats from Zikovic. “He told me, ‘If anything happens to me, your relatives will be in danger.’”
However, Zikovich’s attorney rejected Reut’s new account, describing his client as a low-ranking SBU officer and calling the idea that a private citizen couldorder an active GUR officer to do anything, let alone commit murder. He also called Ziković a “patriot” who had fought in eastern Ukraine in 2014, just as he himself had, and who subsequently “actively defended” the Kyiv region after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022. “He doesn’t want to go to prison. I understand that,” commented Zikovich’s lawyer, referring to Reut’s testimony.
Zikovich’s lawyer also hinted that there might be a “Russian connection” in the case, as Ukrainian intelligence agents have been recruited by Moscow in the past. “Unfortunately, we’ve had quite a few such traitors,” he said, without, however, presenting any evidence.
The prosecutor, for his part, argues that the two men acted “jointly and in a coordinated manner” and that both are charged with intentional homicide.
The court rejected the request for release on bail for both men and ordered them to remain in custody until the investigation is completed.
