Suspect in killing of former Ukrainian politician in Madrid arrested in Germany
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Former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov was shot and killed outside a school in Madrid, Spain, in May 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- A suspect for the 2025 killing of former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov in Madrid was arrested in Germany on February 25.
- Portnov, former aide to pro-Russian President Yanukovich, faced Ukrainian treason and embezzlement accusations, and US sanctions from 2021.
- Spanish police state the arrested suspect, held in Heinsberg, is the shooter; they previously faced, then had dropped, EU sanctions.
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MADRID - A person suspected of killing a former Ukrainian politician outside a school in a wealthy Madrid suburb in 2025 has been arrested in Germany by Spanish and German police, Spain's National Police said on Feb 25.
Andriy Portnov was a senior aide to pro-Russian former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014.
The Spanish police released no details about the detained suspect, saying only that the investigation points to them as the person who fired the shots.
The suspect was arrested in Heinsberg.
Portnov left for Russia in 2014 and later faced investigations in Ukraine on accusations of treason and embezzlement.
He was placed under European Union sanctions, though both the charges and sanctions were eventually dropped.
The US Treasury Department added Portnov to its sanctions list in 2021, saying he had “cultivated extensive connections to Ukraine's judicial and law enforcement apparatus through bribery”. REUTERS
