An adviser to an ex-Ukrainian president is killed near an American school in Spain, officials say

Police officers cordon off the area after an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

POZUELO DE ALARCON, Spain — An adviser to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was shot to death Wednesday outside the American School of Madrid, where at least one of his children was enrolled, Spanish authorities and witnesses said.

Andrii Portnov, 51, was shot at 9:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) as students were arriving, Spain’s Interior Ministry said.

Portnov was a former politician tied closely to Yanukovych, the pro-Moscow president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014 after shelving plans to bring the country closer to the European Union and instead deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Yanukovych’s ouster in February 2014 followed a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, with dozens of people killed, many by police snipers.

Portnov was deputy head of the presidential office in that period and was involved in drafting legislation aimed at punishing participants of the uprising. Ukrainian authorities opened a treason case against him, which was later closed, and he also was the subject of U.S. sanctions involving corruption in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on Portnov’s killing.

Witnesses said Portnov was shot several times in the head and body by more than one gunman when he was getting into a Mercedes Benz registered to him, police said. The unidentified assailants then fled on foot, and local media reported police helicopters later flew over a nearby park.

Portnov died in the parking lot with at least three shots to his body, Madrid’s emergency services said.

He had one child enrolled at the school, according to a parent and an uncle of students there who spoke with The Associated Press. The school declined to comment.

Portnov’s past

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, when pro-Western Petro Poroshenko was president of Ukraine, the country’s Security Service, or SBU, opened an investigation against Portnov on suspicion of state treason, alleging his involvement in Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The criminal case was closed in 2019, three months after Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power.

The United States imposed personal sanctions on Portnov in 2021, 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.”

High-profile killings

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been a number of killings of high-profile figures linked to Moscow and Kyiv.

The killings have included Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist; military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky; and several high-ranking Russian military officers. In those instances, Ukraine denied involvement.

One exception was former Ukrainian lawmaker Illia Kyva, who fled to Russia before the invasion and was killed there in 2023. The SBU said in a statement that its chief, Vasyl Maliuk, has said the enemies of Ukraine “will definitely be held accountable for their crimes.”

One killing that prompted speculation of retaliation by Moscow was the shooting death in Spain last year of Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who defected to Ukraine in 2023, although there was no independent confirmation of Russia’s involvement.

A school in shock

Police cordoned off a crime scene in a parking lot outside the gate of the American School of Madrid, located in the upscale town of Pozuelo de Alarcon, north of Madrid.

Luis Rayo, 19, who lives in a neighboring building, said he was sleeping when he heard gunfire and went to see what happened.

Timur Ayaokur, 17, said he was 20 minutes into his first class when he and his classmates heard of the shooting. School administrators told students that a man had been shot and pronounced dead outside.

“I thought it was a drill,” said Ayaokur, who is in 11th grade. “I was worried because at first I thought it might be a parent of someone I know.”

His mother, Elina Ayaokur, who is originally from Azerbaijan, said she knew someone through the emigre community with the same first name as the victim, but did not know him well.

“I didn’t know there were Ukrainian politicians there,” Ayaokur said, adding that the man she knew had a son in the fourth grade. “I was in shock. Like how is it possible that this happens here?”

Article by Suman Naishadham, Joseph Wilson And Illia Novikov.

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain, and Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.