Andriy Portnov was previously a senior aide who fired former President Viktor Yanukovych and was subject to US sanctions.
The former Ukrainian politician was shot dead by an unknown assailant outside a school in Madrid, authorities said.
The man was identified by the Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs as Andri Portnov, former senior aide to Ukraine’s former president, Viktor Janukovich.
Wednesday morning’s attack took place outside the gates of an American school in the upscale district of Pozuelo de Alarcon’s Spanish capital.
Police were called at 9:15am (07:15 GMT) to inform the man that he had been shot in the street.
An eyewitness cited by police said he was shot “several times” in the head and body by multiple assailants. The attacker fled on foot, police said.
Radio station Cadena Ser reported that Portnov had taken the child to school when he was attacked.
Luis Leio, 19, who lives near the school, said he was asleep when he heard the shooting.
“I’ve heard the five bullets and then I’ve come here to see what happened,” he told The Associated Press.
Portnov was closely associated with Yanukovich, former leader of Ukrainian pro-Lussia, who served as deputy chief of the presidential office from 2010 to 2014.
During Yanukovich’s age of power, Portnov was involved in drafting a law aimed at persecuting participants in the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution.
Portnov and Yanukovich fled Ukraine for Russia in 2014. Since then, Portonov has faced an investigation in Ukraine over allegations of treason and embezzlement, which was later closed and has been on the sanctions list.
EU sanctions on Portnov were lifted in 2015, but six years later he was on the sanctions list by the US Treasury Department.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Spain has seen several famous crimes involving Russians and Ukrainians in its soil.
In 2022, a six-letter bomb was sent to targets around Spain. A retired civil servant was suspected of being imprisoned in a campaign for Kremlin sympathy.
In February 2024, a Russian pilot who fled to Ukraine by helicopter was fatally shot near Alicante.
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