MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities said that an adviser to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was shot dead on Wednesday when gunmen targeted him outside the American School of Madrid.
Andrii Portnov, 52, was identified as the victim by Spain’s Interior Ministry. He was shot at 9:15 a.m. local time (0715 GMT), authorities said.
Local media reported that he was killed after dropping his children off for class.
Witnesses reported that Portnov was shot “several times” in the head and body by more than one gunman when he was getting into a vehicle, police said. The assailants then fled on foot into a wooded area, police said.
Police cordoned off a crime scene in a parking lot around 150 meters (500 feet) outside the gate of the American School of Madrid.
Portnov is a former Ukrainian politician closely tied to Yanukovych, having served as deputy head of the presidential office from 2010 to 2014.
Europa Press News via Getty Images
During Yanukovych’s presidency, Portnov was widely viewed as a pro-Russia political figure and was involved in drafting legislation aimed at persecuting participants of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine.
Luis Rayo, 19, lives in a building next to the school, and said that he was sleeping when he heard the sound of gunfire.
“I heard five bullets and then came here to see what happened,” Rayo said.
After fleeing Ukraine in 2014, Portnov reportedly lived in Russia in 2015 before relocating to Austria. It wasn’t immediately clear when he moved to Spain.
In 2018, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened an investigation against him on suspicion of state treason, alleging his involvement in Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The criminal case was closed in 2019.
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In 2021, the United States imposed personal sanctions on Portnov, designating him as someone “responsible for or complicit in, or (who) has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”
Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Illia Novikov contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.
