Andrii Portnov, a former senior aide to ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was shot and killed outside a school in a suburban area of Madrid on Wednesday, Spain's Interior Ministry confirmed. The incident occurred around 9:15 a.m. local time, near the American School of Madrid in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a wealthy district west of the Spanish capital.
According to police reports, multiple gunmen shot Portnov while he was getting into a vehicle. The attackers, who fired several shots to his head and back, fled toward a nearby forested area. Emergency responders arrived on the scene shortly after receiving reports of the shooting and confirmed that the 51-year-old man had died from at least three gunshot wounds.
A spokesperson for Madrid's emergency services, Encarna Fernandez, stated, "We could only confirm the death of this person." Local media reports suggest that Portnov had dropped his children off at the school shortly before the shooting. Police cordoned off the area, including a parking lot near the school entrance, where the body was found.
Portnov, who had been a prominent political figure during Yanukovych’s presidency, became deputy head of the presidential administration in the early 2010s. He was known for his pro-Russian stance and played a key role in drafting laws that targeted pro-European protesters during the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. Following Yanukovych's ouster that year, Portnov fled to Russia and later to Austria, where he lived for several years.
In 2018, Ukraine's Security Service launched a treason investigation against Portnov, accusing him of involvement in Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. However, the case was closed in 2019, and Portnov returned to Ukraine after the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky. He was also placed under U.S. sanctions in 2021 for alleged corruption and abuse of his judicial and law enforcement connections.
The shooting of Portnov is the latest in a series of high-profile incidents involving Russian and Ukrainian nationals in Spain since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Spain, home to large expatriate communities from both countries, has seen an increase in politically motivated crimes.
In late 2022, several letter bombs were sent to high-profile targets, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid. A Spanish retiree, sympathetic to Russia, was later convicted for those attacks.
In February 2024, a Russian defector who had joined Ukraine's military was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in a parking garage near Alicante.
The shooting of Portnov adds to a growing list of unresolved incidents involving former Soviet states’ nationals on Spanish soil, raising questions about the potential political motivations behind these attacks.