Former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov has been shot and killed on Wednesday morning outside an American School in Madrid, a police source said.
Police received the call about the shooting in the affluent neighbourhood of Pozuelo at 9:15am (8:15 UK time) local time, the Madrid police said, without identifying the victim. The man was taking his children to school when he was shot, Radio station Cadena SER reported.
The victim was shot five times before a final shot to the head, El Mundo reported. Police are now looking for a tall, thin man who fled towards Casa de Campo after the shooting.
Mr Portnov was a senior aide to Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych who was ousted in 2014.
After regime change in Ukraine, Mr Portnov was placed on several sanctions lists by the West, including the EU and Canada, for his actions as part of the former administration.
He had been involved in the authoritarian crackdown against the Maidan Uprising, a wave of civil unrest in Ukraine sparked by Yanukovych’s desires for close ties with Russia at the expense of the EU.
Mr Portnov, who has challenged the sanctions placed upon him, was removed from the EU sanctions list in 2015, one year after being placed on it.
In 2021, he was added to the US sanctions list for “using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraine’s courts and undermining reform efforts”, the US embassy in Kyiv said.
The department said in a statement: ”Widely known as a court fixer, Portnov was credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraine’s courts and undermining reform efforts. As of 2019, Portnov took steps to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence associated legislation, sought to place loyal officials in senior judiciary positions, and purchase court decisions.”
Mr Portnov lived in Russia after the Ukrainian government was ousted, before moving to Vienna, Austria, where he practiced law. He returned to Ukraine in May 2019.
In 2018, the Crimean prosecutors office opened an investigation into Mr Portnov for his alleged involvement in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, which followed shortly after Yanukovych was ousted. Later that year, Ukraine’s SBU security service opened criminal proceedings into Mr Portnov relating to treason.
Both cases were closed after a pre-trial investigation, according to official letters published by Mr Portnov.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been several crimes involving high-profile Russian and Ukrainians in Spain, which has significant expatriate populations from both countries.
In November and December 2022, six letter bombs were sent to high profile targets around Spain, including to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, government offices, a European Union satellite company and the US Embassy. A 76-year-old retired Spanish civil servant whose social media searches suggested sympathy for Russia was jailed for the offences.
In April 2022, a Russian businessman tied to Russia’s gas company Novatek was found dead in an apparent suicide together with his wife and daughter who had suffered stab wounds.
In February 2024, a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine with his helicopter was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking garage of his apartment block near Alicante.
