A former Ukrainian politician with ties to pro-Russian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych was shot and killed on 21 May morning outside an elite international school in Madrid, Spanish authorities confirmed.

Andrii Portnov, 52, was fatally shot around 9:15 a.m. local time outside the American School Madrid in the wealthy suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcón, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry, Cadena SER and Reuters report.

Emergency services pronounced him dead at the scene after finding him with multiple gunshot wounds.

“Several persons shot him in the back and the head and then fled towards a forested area,” an Interior Ministry source said. 

The victim had received four impacts to the chest area and one to the head, according to Reuters.

Police sources indicate that multiple assailants were waiting for Portnov at the entrance of the educational center and opened fire when he approached his vehicle after reportedly dropping off his children. Some reports suggest there may have been two or three shooters involved.

Spanish authorities have deployed scientific police units and homicide detectives to the scene. While no hypothesis has been ruled out, sources consulted by investigators suggest the killing could be a settling of scores.

Assassinated man fled Ukraine after 2014 Revolution, faced multiple sanctions

Portnov served as an advisor to the first deputy head of the Administration of President Viktor Yanukovych from 2011 to 2014. After the Euromaidan revolution, Portnov fled Ukraine in 2014, living for a time in Russia before relocating to Vienna. He was known for calling for amnesty for the Berkut special police forces who beat and killed protesters and advocating for investigations against Euromaidan participants.

In March 2014, the European Union imposed sanctions against 18 Ukrainian citizens suspected of misappropriating state funds and being involved in human rights violations, with Portnov among them. However, in March 2015, while extending these sanctions, the EU removed Portnov from the list.

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) opened a treason case against Portnov in March 2018, prompting him to file a lawsuit against the agency. The case was eventually closed. After a five-year absence, Portnov returned to Ukraine in May 2019, only to be sanctioned by the United States in December 2021.

The US Treasury Department placed Portnov on its sanctions list, stating he had “cultivated extensive connections to Ukraine’s judicial and law enforcement apparatus through bribery.”

He was also embroiled in legal battles with Ukrainian media. Portnov filed a lawsuit against the news outlet Hromadske regarding their investigation “How Crimea Was Seized: Exclusive Records,” demanding the material be removed. However, the Supreme Court ruled that Hromadske would not have to delete the investigation while the case was under review.

Previous assassinations of Russian officials connected to war in Ukraine

On 25 April 2025, Russian Defence Ministry Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car explosion in Balashikha, near Moscow. Moskalik was involved in high-level military operations planning and had participated in the Normandy Format talks on Ukraine.

The blast, caused by a remotely detonated improvised explosive device filled with shrapnel, occurred as Moskalik was passing by a Volkswagen Golf parked near a residential building. The explosion was reportedly carefully planned, with surveillance indicating the vehicle had been monitored for months.

On the night of 17-18 April 2025, a senior Russian military technology engineer and head of the design bureau at the Bryansk Electromechanical Plant Yevgeny Rytikov was killed in a car explosion in Bryansk, Russia. Rytikov was a key figure in developing and modernizing Russia’s electronic warfare (EW) and radio-electronic reconnaissance systems.