MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities stated that an adviser to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was shot useless on Wednesday when gunmen focused him exterior the American Faculty of Madrid.
Andrii Portnov, 52, was recognized because the sufferer by Spain’s Inside Ministry. He was shot at 9:15 a.m. native time (0715 GMT), authorities stated.
Native media reported that he was killed after dropping his kids off for sophistication.
Witnesses reported that Portnov was shot “a number of instances” within the head and physique by a couple of gunman when he was getting right into a car, police stated. The assailants then fled on foot right into a wooded space, police stated.
Police cordoned off a criminal offense scene in a parking zone round 150 meters (500 toes) exterior the gate of the American Faculty of Madrid.
Portnov is a former Ukrainian politician intently tied to Yanukovych, having served as deputy head of the presidential workplace from 2010 to 2014.
Europa Press Information by way of Getty Photographs
Throughout Yanukovych’s presidency, Portnov was extensively considered as a pro-Russia political determine and was concerned in drafting laws aimed toward persecuting members of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine.
Luis Rayo, 19, lives in a constructing subsequent to the varsity, and stated that he was sleeping when he heard the sound of gunfire.
“I heard 5 bullets after which got here right here to see what occurred,” Rayo stated.
After fleeing Ukraine in 2014, Portnov reportedly lived in Russia in 2015 earlier than relocating to Austria. It wasn’t instantly clear when he moved to Spain.
In 2018, Ukraine’s Safety Service, or SBU, opened an investigation in opposition to him on suspicion of state treason, alleging his involvement in Russia’s unlawful annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The felony case was closed in 2019.
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In 2021, the USA imposed private sanctions on Portnov, designating him as somebody “answerable for or complicit in, or (who) has straight or not directly engaged in, corruption, together with the misappropriation of state property, the expropriation of personal property for private achieve, corruption associated to authorities contracts or the extraction of pure sources, or bribery.”
Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Illia Novikov contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.