Russian-linked Ukrainian politician shot dead in Spain

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A former high-ranking Ukrainian politician connected to the country’s ousted pro-Russian president was shot dead on Wednesday outside an exclusive international school near Madrid, according to Spanish and Ukrainian authorities.

Andriy Portnov, who was previously wanted in Ukraine for treason, was the victim of the fatal shooting on Wednesday morning, Spain’s interior ministry confirmed to the Financial Times.

Portnov was once a prominent political figure in Ukraine and a close ally of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was removed from office in the country’s 2014 revolution. Yanukovych and Portnov fled to Russia at that time.

Officials in Kyiv confirmed Portnov’s death but declined to comment further. Many Ukrainians viewed Portnov as a traitor for his role in aiding Yanukovych in the deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators during the revolution.

The Spanish interior ministry said Portnov, a Ukrainian national, was murdered on Wednesday morning in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a wealthy neighbourhood outside Madrid.

The shooting took place outside the gates of the American School of Madrid, one of the most expensive private schools in Spain.

The ministry said Portnov was shot several times in the back and head by a group of attackers as he was getting into a vehicle. The assailants then fled the scene into a wooded area. 

In a message to parents seen by the Financial Times, the American School of Madrid said: “It was a fatal shooting. We believe the victim is an ASM father, but formal identification by police is pending.” The school added that the area was secure and “all students are safe on campus”.

The ministry said murder investigators and forensic officers were “taking charge of the investigation to fully clarify the events”.

Portnov, 51, had worked as lawyer before serving in Ukraine’s parliament and eventually as the deputy head of Yanukovych’s presidential administration, a powerful position in which he influenced some of the ex-president’s more controversial policies.

Mykola Davydiuk, a political analyst in Kyiv, said Portnov was one of Ukraine’s “grey cardinals” — an influential behind-the-scenes power broker who “manipulated” the law for personal gain and influence.

Portnov had previously been investigated by Ukraine’s security service for high treason relating to his alleged role in aiding Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014. That case was later closed, but Ukraine’s interior ministry opened other investigations into allegations of corruption and embezzlement.

The US Treasury placed him under sanctions in 2021, alleging direct involvement in corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets. It accused him of building extensive ties with Ukraine’s judicial and law enforcement systems through bribery.

Known as a “court fixer”, the Treasury said, “Portnov took steps to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence associated legislation, sought to place loyal officials in senior judiciary positions, and purchase court decisions”.

In mid-2019, the US government said, Portnov “colluded with a high ranking Ukrainian government official to shape the country’s higher legal institutions to their advantage and influence Ukraine’s Constitutional Court . . . [and] the Ukrainian Prosecutor General.”

Portnov denied the many allegations made against him.

He fled to Russia after the 2014 revolution, before moving to Austria. He returned briefly to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s election in 2019, but left the country in 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion. He settled in Spain, where there is a large community of Ukrainian and Russian expatriates.

Spain has been the scene of several high-profile crimes involving nationals from both countries since the war in Ukraine began.

In February 2024, a Russian helicopter pilot, Maksim Kuzminov — who defected to Ukraine in 2023 and was deemed a traitor by officials in Moscow — was found shot dead, his body riddled with bullets, near a burnt-out vehicle, Ukrainian military intelligence told the FT at the time.