Spain’s interior ministry confirmed Andriy Portnov, 51, a senior aide to Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych, was killed today taking his children to school in the afluent municpality of Pozuelo.
Spain´s National Police said witnesses had reported Portnov was shot “several times” in the head and body by more than one gunman when he was getting into his car, a black Mercedes Benz.
He had moved to Madrid last year according to a document seen by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report.
A Spanish police source told El Pais: ‘One shot, the fatal one, was to the head, at the level of the neck, from behind but at an angle, and the other two to the body, in the abdomen and side.’
A local witness said to Spanish media that: ‘I woke up with a very loud noise of six or seven shots… I knew those weren’t firecrackers. I heard a scream. We saw a man on the ground.’
Other witnesses have described the killing as a ‘professional hit’ and said the killer waited for his victim to drop his daughter off before striking.
A school employee later confirmed students had already been inside the school at the time of the shooting, and the school is trying to ‘organise a response’.
According to the Politico news website “Portnov was one of the key functionaries of Ukraine’s pro-Russian fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych. In 2021, he was sanctioned by the United States over allegations of high-profile corruption, particularly in the judiciary”.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Spain has been the scene of several high-profile crimes involving Russians and Ukrainians.
Since the war began Spain has seen a number of high profile incidents involving Russians and Ukrainians.
Wednesday’s shooting marked the second high-profile political shooting in Madrid in as many years; in 2023, the Spanish right-wing politician and former vice-president of the European parliament, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, survived after being shot in the face by a masked gunman in another wealthy neighbourhood of Madrid.