Unidentified assailants shot dead 51-year-old former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov outside a school in a wealthy area of Madrid on Wednesday, the 21st of May, the Spanish Interior Ministry said, according to Reuters.
Portnov was previously a high-ranking aide to pro-Russian former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in a national uprising in 2014.
Police arrived at the scene after receiving calls at 9:15 am about a man with gunshot wounds in the street outside a school in the Madrid suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcón.
“Several persons shot him in the back and head and then fled into the forest area,” said a source in the Ministry of the Interior.
When emergency services arrived, they found Portnov dead with at least three gunshot wounds, the spokesman said.
Police had cordoned off the pavement outside the school and several ambulances were parked nearby.
Portnov left for Russia in 2014 and was investigated in Ukraine on charges of high treason and embezzlement. He was sanctioned by the European Union, although this and the charges were later dropped.
In 2021, the US Treasury Department placed Portnov on a sanctions list, saying he had “established extensive contacts with the Ukrainian judiciary and law enforcement agencies through bribery”.
Portnov appears to have lived in Madrid since at least April 2024, when he signed a power of attorney form in the Spanish capital in connection with the transfer of property in Ukraine to his children, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports.
Since February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there have been several high-profile crimes linked to Russia and Ukraine in Spain, where many emigrants from both countries live.
In 2022, a retired Spanish civil servant sent six letter bombs to targets across Spain, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Ukrainian and US embassies and government offices. Pompeyo Gonzalez Pascual, whose social media searches showed sympathy for Russia, was convicted and imprisoned last year for these crimes.
In February 2024, a Russian pilot who had defected to Ukraine in his helicopter was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds in the garage of his apartment block near Alicante, south-eastern Spain.