Andriy Portnov was previously a senior aide to removed former President Viktor Yanukovych and had been the subject of US sanctions.
A Ukrainian former politician has been shot dead by unknown assailants outside a school in Madrid, Spain, authorities said.
The man was identified by Spain’s Ministry of Interior as Andriy Portnov, who was previously a senior aide to Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych.
The attack on Wednesday morning took place outside the gates of the American School in the Spanish capital’s upscale neighbourhood of Pozuelo de Alarcon.
Police were called at about 9:15am (07:15 GMT) and notified that a man had been shot in the street.
Witnesses quoted by the police said he was shot “several times” in the head and body by more than one assailant. The attackers fled on foot, police said.
Luis Rayo, a 19-year-old who lives near the school, said he had been sleeping when he heard gunfire.
“I heard five bullets and then came here to see what happened,” he told The Associated Press news agency.
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Portnov had been closely tied to Ukraine’s pro-Russian former leader Yanukovych, having served as deputy head of the presidential office from 2010 to 2014.
During Yanukovych’s time in power, Portnov was involved in drafting legislation aimed at persecuting participants of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine.
Portnov and Yanukovych both fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014. Since then, Portnov has faced investigations in Ukraine over allegations of treason and embezzlement, and was targeted in 2015 with European Union sanctions, although those and the charges were later dropped.
In 2021, the US Treasury Department said he had “cultivated extensive connections to Ukraine’s judicial and law enforcement apparatus through bribery”.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Spain has seen several high-profile crimes involving Russians and Ukrainians on its soil.
In 2022, six letter bombs were sent to targets around Spain, with a retired civil servant suspected of having pro-Kremlin sympathies jailed over the campaign.
In February 2024, a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine with his helicopter was fatally shot near Alicante.