Monaco is reputed to be one of the safest places in the world - a place where the rich come precisely to feel untouchable. But a bomb in a residential building shattered that illusion and posed an uncomfortable question: what if the violence from other parts of the world reaches even the place where money buys peace?

On 6 July, a parcel bomb exploded at the entrance of the luxury building „Sun Palace“ in Monaco, targeting the Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Yermolayev (58) and those close to him. The worst hurt was Anna Nasobina (46), who had both legs amputated and is fighting for her life. The oligarch's son, just 13, got away with lighter injuries. Yermolayev is hospitalised in Nice.

The story behind the attack is tangled. Yermolayev has been under Ukrainian sanctions since 2023 over alleged business ties with occupied Crimea, and that is precisely why he fled to Monaco. Investigators suspect the attack could be the work of Ukrainian security services, and the wanted attacker is a 39-year-old woman, allegedly disguised as a man, for whom Interpol has issued a red notice. The charges are grave: attempted murder and organised crime.

What makes this story bigger than the incident itself is that it demolishes the notion that wealth buys safety. Wars and reckonings today have long arms - they reach even the most protected addresses, the buildings with doormen and cameras on every corner. For the ordinary person in the Balkans, who never dreamed of an apartment in Monaco, there is a bitter consolation here: money can buy a lot, but not a guarantee that the world won't catch up with you. And when the shooting starts among oligarchs in Monaco, it means something in the system that protected them is seriously falling apart.