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 attack occured as Portnov prepared to get into a vehicle, a police source told the AFP news agency, adding that the assailants then fled on foot to a wooded area.

The Associated Press news agency reported that parents at the school said Portnov’s children were enrolled there.

One student at the school, Timur Ayaokur, told the news agency that he and his classmates first heard there had been a shooting about 20 minutes into their first class of the day.

“I thought it was a drill,” said the 17-year-old.

His mother, Elina Ayaokur, told the agency that she knew the victim, although not well.

“I didn’t know there were Ukrainian politicians there,” she said, adding that the victim had a son in the 4th grade.

“I was in shock, like how is it possible that this happens here?”

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”.

After fleeing Ukraine for Russia, Portnov lived for a time in Austria, before returning to his homeland after the election of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019. According to reports, he fled Ukraine again after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, despite a ban on military-age men leaving the country.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion, 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.

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies