Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on February 25, 2026
1 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on Google
Spanish and German police arrested a suspect in Heinsberg for the 2025 killing of Andriy Portnov outside a Madrid school. Authorities withheld the suspect’s identity as the cross-border investigation continues.
MADRID, Feb 25 (Reuters) - 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 Wednesday.
Andriy Portnov was a senior aide to a 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 U.S. 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".
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Alison Williams)
Authorities arrested a suspect in Germany over the 2025 killing of former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov outside a Madrid school. Police say the investigation indicates the detainee fired the shots.
The suspect was detained in Heinsberg, Germany. The killing happened on May 21, 2025, near the American School of Madrid in the suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcón.
Portnov was a former senior aide to ex-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. He previously faced investigations in Ukraine; EU sanctions were later lifted, while the U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in 2021.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
