Assassination^[Reuters: Ukrainian ex-politician shot dead outside elite American school in Madrid]
Date: 2025-05-21
Location: Madrid, Spain (2,200 km from Ukraine)
Victim: Andriy Portnov, former Ukrainian politician
[Image CW: Dead body]
Portnov was shot dead in the back and head while waiting to pick up his children from school.
Portnov worked for Ukrainian President Yanukovych and escaped the country back in 2014 following the CIA-backed coup. He vocally supported Zelenskyy (the "peace candidate") in the 2019 election and returned to Ukraine that same year. Peace did not come, however, and three years later (after Russia entered the war) he once again fled Ukraine for safety.
Historian Marta Havryshko speculated^[@HavryshkoMarta on Twitter] that he knew too much about Zelenskyy's corruption schemes.
Suicide Bombing^[SVO veteran Zaur Gurtsiev died as a result of an explosion in Stavropol. What is known]
Date: 2025-05-29
Location: Stavropol, Russia (360 km from Ukraine)
Victim: Zaur Gurtsyev, Deputy Mayor
Gurtsyev was standing outside an apartment building when "an acquaintance" approached him within a meter and then detonated himself, killing them both. It was caught on video by a surveillance camera^[[CW: Graphic] Surveillance footage of Russian deputy mayor murdered in suicide bombing]. He was 34.
Gurtsyev was a veteran and likely targeted for his involvement in the 2022 liberation of Mariupol, an Azov Battalion stronghold^[Greek in Mariupol: “The fascist Ukrainians would kill me, they don’t let us leave the city”].
Rail Bombings^[Russia says blasts led to deadly train crashes in regions bordering Ukraine]
Date: 2025-06-01
Location 1: Vygonichskyi district, Bryansk Oblast, Russia (~80 km from Ukraine)
Location 2: Zheleznogorsk district, Kursk Oblast, Russia (also ~80 km from Ukraine)
Victims: 7 Russian civilians killed, 104 others injured^[Number of Injured in Bryansk Region Bridge Bombing Rises to 104, Authorities Say]
A bomb took out a bridge in Vygonichskyi district and derailed a train carrying 388 people. Seven people were killed, and four children were hospitalized.
A separate, similar incident occurring the same night derailed a freight train in the Zheleznogorsk district.
