As he got into his Mercedes sedan after dropping his children off at an international school near Madrid, a Ukrainian lawyer named Andriy Portnov was approached by assailants who shot him five times, the last time in the head.
Portnov's brazen murder on May 21 stunned the Spanish. It caused greater shock in Ukrainian political circles, where Portnov had been present for years: as a lawyer, mediator and political operative.
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Here's what you need to know about Portnov, his political importance, and what his murder means.
Who exactly was he?
A lawyer by training, Portnov was closely associated with Viktor Yanukovych, who was Ukraine's president until February 2014, when months of street protests turned violent and Yanukovych fled the country. Portnov was Yanukovych's deputy chief of staff.
He was known for litigation -- filing threatening lawsuits, especially against journalists.
In 2019, Portnov threatened the investigative unit of the Ukrainian service RFE/RL Schemes, publishing the personal data of some of the unit's journalists.
"Portnov was very closely connected to the judicial system. At one point, he was leading a large number of different trials. He influenced judges, he influenced security officials," Ivan Stupak, a military analyst who previously worked for Ukraine's SBU security agency, told Current Time.
Under Yanukovych, Portnov took responsibility for updating the country's criminal code and procedures. The efforts have been criticized for, among other things, making it harder to conduct fair trials and obstructing official investigations into corruption and bribery.
Before advising Yanukovych, Portnov worked alongside Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's political rival who lost the 2010 presidential election to him.
Portnov also met with veteran American political lobbyist Paul Manafort, who helped engineer Yanukovych's political comeback in the 2000s and his electoral victory over Tymoshenko. Yanukovych later ordered Tymoshenko's imprisonment.
Portnov traveled to Washington in 2013 as part of Manafort's efforts to defuse American criticism of Tymoshenko's imprisonment.
"The success of Andriy's visit is important and timely. It demonstrates that the continued presence of key Ukrainian leaders coming to the United States is effective and can change the rhetoric," Manafort wrote in a February 2013 email. "We must bring Andriy back to the United States semi-annually or quarterly."
The email, which was addressed to Yanukovych's former chief of staff, was included in US court filings after Manafort was indicted in 2017 on tax and fraud charges stemming from his work for Yanukovych.
Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, but was later pardoned by US President Donald Trump.
Portnov, meanwhile, was hit with financial sanctions in 2021 by the US Treasury Department.
"Widely known as a court broker, Portnov was credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukrainian courts and undermine reform efforts," the ministry said in a statement. "Portnov took steps to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence related legislation, seek to appoint loyal officials to high judicial positions, and buy court decisions."
What was he doing in Spain?
It was not immediately clear how long Portnov and his family had lived in Spain.
He left Ukraine for Russia after Yanukovych fled the country following the February 2014 protests known as Maidan. Portnov has been outspoken in his criticism of the Maidan events.
He later ended up in Austria, where he practiced law, and traveled back to Ukraine several times.
In 2018, the SBU announced that it had launched an investigation into Portnov's treason, alleging that he played a role in Russia's annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula that Moscow seized a few weeks after the Maidan.
The case was opened after intercepted phone conversations from 2014 showed Portnov speaking to a senior Kremlin adviser. He was later imprisoned without charge.
He returned to Ukraine in 2019 shortly after Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president.
"Friends, I haven't been to my country for over five years," he wrote on his Telegram channel at the time. "And today I want to give a strong signal to the thousands of people who left Ukraine. It's time to return, build and restore. Hello, my dear homeland!"
He was a co-owner of a pro-Russian TV channel linked to politician Viktor Medvedchuk, a Kremlin ally. Ukrainian authorities closed the station in 2021.
In March 2022, a month after Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine, Schemes uncovered properties belonging to Portnov’s family in the Moscow region. That year, Portnov left Ukraine for good.
Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Maidan events and has been living in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. His current location is unclear.
Who killed him?
Portnov was shot at around 9:15 a.m., reportedly right after dropping his two daughters off at the American School of Madrid, a private institution located in Pozuelo de Alarco, on the outskirts of the Spanish capital.
Spanish authorities have said little about the progress of their investigation.
Outside observers have pointed to Portnov's past conflicts with Ukrainian intelligence as a possible indication that he was targeted by a Ukrainian hitman. Others have said it is possible that Portnov had conflicts over his business interests.
"Maybe someone was taken away from a big deal at some point, maybe the money from that deal wasn't divided properly, and one of the partners decided to get revenge," Stupak said. "We can't rule that out."
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