Andrey Portnov was gunned down on Wednesday in an affluent suburb of the Spanish capital, in a suspected professional hit
A top court in the Madrid region has placed a secrecy order on an investigation into the killing of former Ukrainian lawmaker Andrey Portnov, according to local news reports.
No suspects have been arrested in connection with Wednesday’s shooting. Portnov, a seasoned politician who had fled Ukraine following allegations of treason, was gunned down on the street in an affluent suburb of the Spanish capital, in what local media speculates was a professional killing.
The Madrid Superior Court of Justice (TSJM), the highest judicial authority in the autonomous region, issued an order to restrict public access to case details on Thursday, EFE news agency and the newspaper 20 Minutos reported.
According to the latest media updates, Portnov was shot multiple times from behind by a lone gunman while standing at his Mercedes shortly after dropping his children to school in Pozuelo de Alarcon, a suburb of Madrid which ranks as one of the wealthiest municipalities in Spain.
Two accomplices reportedly assisted the assailant’s escape in a getaway vehicle.
Portnov, a lawyer and long-time political figure who served as an MP in the late 2000s, served as a legal adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, before he was ousted in a Western-backed armed coup in 2014. Portnov fled his country but returned in 2019 following the election of Vladimir Zelensky on a mandate to reintegrate Ukraine’s Russian-speaking regions.
Known for offering legal defense to individuals he claimed were politically persecuted, Portnov frequently appeared on Ukraine’s opposition media. While he initially supported Zelensky’s presidential bid, he later became a vocal critic as the new administration cracked down on opposition figures and media it labeled “pro-Russian.”
Portnov reportedly left Ukraine again in July 2022 and the next year transferred some assets to his children via a notary in Madrid, signaling that he had settled in Spain.
Rodion Miroshnik, Russia’s ambassador-at-large overseeing a special mission on alleged Ukrainian war crimes, has suggested that Portnov’s career gave him access to legal documents that could be damaging to people in Zelensky’s inner circle and that he may have been targeted to prevent the possible disclosure of such materials.
