Former Yanukovych advisor killed in Madrid

Andriy Portnov, a former advisor to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was assassinated in a Madrid suburb, the capital of Spain, in a gun attack.

According to a source familiar with the investigation who spoke to Reuters and confirmation from Spanish police, the incident occurred while Portnov was dropping off his children at the American School.

Cadena SER, a Spanish radio station, reported that an unidentified assailant was waiting for Portnov at the school gate.

When the former Ukrainian politician arrived at the scene in his vehicle, the assailant opened fire, striking Portnov, and then fled. Portnov reportedly sustained four bullet wounds to the chest and one to the head.

El Pais newspaper, citing police sources, stated that there might have been two or three assailants.

Born in Luhansk in 1973, Andriy Portnov began his career in 1997 at the State Securities and Stock Market Commission.

Portnov served as a member of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, from 2006 to 2010. In 2010, he was appointed deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.

Portnov also chaired the main administration for judicial reform and the judicial system. He continued to serve as the first deputy head of the Presidential Administration until Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014. Following this event, he left Ukraine and began working as a private lawyer.

On January 15, 2015, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that a case had been opened against Portnov on charges of “abuse of power and embezzlement of public assets” and that he was wanted.

However, the arrest warrant was later canceled due to the inability to ascertain the politician’s exact whereabouts.

Portnov lived in Austria until 2019, after which he returned to Ukraine.

In 2021, the US decided to impose sanctions on Portnov. The stated reason for the sanctions was that Portnov had established “extensive connections with Ukrainian judicial and law enforcement agencies” through bribery and used his influence “to secure decisions in Ukrainian courts.”

After returning to Ukraine, Portnov filed complaints with the State Bureau of Investigation against former President Petro Poroshenko, alleging that he had engaged in “criminal acts” while in office.

Poroshenko, in turn, called on the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on Portnov.

Poroshenko emphasized that the absence of such sanctions “discredited not only Zelenskyy but the state as a whole.”

According to Shemy, an investigative journalism project, Portnov left Ukraine in June 2022.