"Accomplices detained." Security forces uncovered an acid attack plot against a woman from Yekaterinburg.

      "Arrested the accomplices." Law-enforcement officers uncovered an acid attack attempt on a woman from Yekaterinburg

      January 20, 2026

      In Yekaterinburg, police detained the accomplices of media manager Nikolai Ermakov, who is accused of ordering an attempt on his ex-wife. The attack was uncovered "hot on the trail," the head of the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Sverdlovsk Region, Valery Gorelykh, told the EAN agency.

      "In fact, one can say that the high-profile crime was solved 'hot on the trail,'" Colonel Gorelykh said. "They are a kind of Bonnie and Clyde, only of our day."

      According to the plan developed, the murder was to be carried out by a man with the assistance of a woman. Both had previously been convicted for illegal trafficking of drugs on a particularly large scale. The man was released from a penal colony in 2023. Earlier, the Kirovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg had sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

      The plan was put into action in the early morning of January 12. They chose a toxic substance as the murder weapon, which they believed would kill the victim when poured. The crime scene chosen was the underground parking garage on Beloglazov Boulevard in Yekaterinburg.

      The organizer had handed the executor the parking key in advance. When the victim came into the parking garage, the executor approached her and poured the toxic substance. The liquid got on various parts of the victim's body. The victim actively resisted, which prevented the executor from completing his plan, and he fled the scene. The victim was given medical assistance and her life was saved.

      The couple was taken at the residence of the man's relatives, where they had tried to lie low. The operation involved officers from the regional headquarters' organized crime unit together with colleagues from the city police directorate and Police Precinct No. 14.

      "The arrest took place in an apartment on the fourth floor of a residential building on Konduktorskaya Street in the Pionersky microdistrict. They were captured quickly; they did not have time to resist," Gorelykh said.

      The detainees have been charged under articles on attempted murder-for-hire and complicity, the press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Sverdlovsk Region reports.

      Earlier, on January 18, the Ordzhonikidzevsky District Court of Yekaterinburg ordered pre-trial detention for the organizer of the crime, Nikolai Ermakov. According to media reports, media manager Ermakov is actually involved in the funeral business, controlling one of the most notorious groups of "ritual workers" — the "Dondiki." The accused himself denies this connection. Before Ermakov's arrest, operational-investigative actions were carried out at the office of a funeral company associated with him.