Andriy Portnov, a Ukrainian politician who served as a top aide to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was shot and killed outside an international school in Madrid on Wednesday, Spanish authorities confirmed.
Portnov, 51, was attacked just after 9:15 a.m. local time outside the American School of Madrid, located in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a suburb west of the city. Witnesses said he had just dropped off his children at school and was walking to his car when he was shot multiple times.
Emergency services said he suffered gunshot wounds to the back and head and died at the scene before medics could help.
Police said the attackers fled into a nearby wooded area. No arrests have been made as of this writing.
Portnov was a lawyer and political figure who began his career with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party but switched sides to join Yanukovych’s administration in 2010. He served as deputy head of Yanukovych’s presidential office and helped lead judicial reforms.
He fled Ukraine in 2014 during the Maidan uprising and returned in 2019 after Volodymyr Zelenskyy became president. He left again following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The U.S. sanctioned Portnov in 2021 under the Magnitsky Act for corruption, alleging he used bribes to influence Ukraine’s legal system. Canada froze his assets in 2014 as part of a crackdown on corrupt foreign officials in connection with his role as a former adviser to Yanukovych.
Ukraine had also initiated a treason investigation against Portnov over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, but the case was dropped after it was concluded that no offense had been committed.
The police are still investigating the motive behind Portnov’s killing. His death marks the latest in a series of high-profile incidents in Spain involving Russian and Ukrainian nationals since the war began in 2022.
