Police officers search for evidence at the scene of a shooting outside the American School of Madrid in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain, 21 May 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORJA SANCHEZ-TRILLO

A former high-ranking Ukrainian official in the administration of pro-Russian former president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in 2014, has been shot dead outside an international school in the Spanish capital Madrid, national radio station Cadena SER reported on Wednesday.

Andriy Portnov, 51, was returning to his car after dropping his children to the American School of Madrid, located in the city’s wealthy Pozuelo de Alarcón suburb when he was shot five times by a group of unidentified gunmen, according to Cadena SER.

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

According to El País, Spain’s most widely read newspaper, a school employee confirmed that the attack took place half an hour after the school start time, so neither children nor parents witnessed the shooting. No arrests have been made so far.

From 2010 to 2014, Portnov served as deputy head of the presidential administration under Yanukovych, before the pro-Russian leader was ousted during Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution — a wave of mass protests sparked by Yanukovych’s decision to reject a landmark trade and association agreement with the EU, opting instead to pursue closer ties with Russia.

Andriy Portnov in May 2019. Photo: Portnov’s Telegram channel

Portnov, who reportedly played a role in drafting legislation aimed at cracking down on pro-democracy protesters, was investigated by Ukraine’s security services in 2018 over allegations of high treason and embezzlement, though the case was closed a year later. He fled to Russia after Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, before returning to Ukraine in 2019, but fled the country again for the EU in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In 2021, the US Treasury Department placed Portnov on a sanctions list, accusing him of using bribery to gain influence over Ukraine’s courts and law enforcement, Reuters continued.

According to The Kyiv Independent, Portnov was considered one of the most litigious Ukrainian ex-officials. He previously filed defamation lawsuits against several media outlets, including the Kyiv Independent, over descriptions of him being “pro-Russian”.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Spain — which hosts a large expatriate population from both countries — has seen several high-profile crimes involving Russian and Ukrainian individuals.

In November and December 2022, six letter bombs were mailed to prominent targets across Spain, including to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, various government offices, and the US Embassy. In February 2024, a Russian pilot who had defected to Ukraine with his helicopter was fatally shot in the parking lot of his apartment near Alicante.