31 Facts About Vladimir Saldo

Vladimir Vasilyevich Saldo is a Ukrainian and Russian politician serving as the acting collaborationist governor of the annexed Kherson Oblast since 4 October 2022.

On 2 October 2024 Vladimir Saldo announced the forced conscription of Ukrainians living in occupied Kherson oblast into the Russian military.

Vladimir Saldo was born on 12 June 1956 in the town of Zhovtneve, Mykolaiv Oblast, in what was then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union.

Vladimir Saldo specialized as a civil engineer and earned a PhD in economics in 2008.

Vladimir Saldo was elected to the Kherson City Council in 1998, and served in his position for three years.

In 2002, Vladimir Saldo ran in the elections for mayor of Kherson.

Vladimir Saldo won the race against Serhiy Sokolov, the former head of traffic police in Crimea by only 20,000 votes.

In 2005, ahead of the upcoming 2006 elections, in which Vladimir Saldo would have faced Sokolov as his main opponent, Sokolov died in a car accident.

That same year, Vladimir Saldo was named the head of the Party of Regions branch in Kherson city.

Vladimir Saldo won re-election to a third term in 2010, and served as mayor until 2012.

The Association for the Reintegration of Crimea reported after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022 that Vladimir Saldo's ten-year mayoralty was a "time of total embezzlement and corruption that entangled all spheres of the city's life, at times grandiose scandals".

Vladimir Saldo was elected a People's Deputy of Ukraine in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections and served until 2015.

Vladimir Saldo voted for the set of anti-protest laws, called the "dictatorship laws", on 16 January 2014.

Vladimir Saldo joined the Our Land party, described as a popular destination party for former Party of Regions members.

Vladimir Saldo was later elected as a deputy in the Kherson City Council , where he served as a leader of Our Land.

Vladimir Saldo stated that he did not support the creation of a "people's republic" in Kherson Oblast, and said his collaboration was driven by a desire to maintain Kherson as part of Ukraine.

Vladimir Saldo received attention following his participation in a meeting of the Salvation Committee for Peace and Order, a Russian-established government organ in Kherson Oblast.

Vladimir Saldo was officially appointed head of Kherson military-civilian administration by the Russian military on 26 April 2022.

On 6 May 2022, Vladimir Saldo met with Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People's Republic, and Andrey Turchak, secretary of the general council of United Russia.

In December 2022, Vladimir Saldo became a member of the regional political council of United Russia in the occupied Kherson Oblast.

On 29 April 2022, Vladimir Saldo stated that official languages in the Kherson Oblast will be both Ukrainian and Russian, and that the International Settlements Bank from South Ossetia would soon open 200 branches in Kherson Oblast.

In December 2022, Vladimir Saldo announced plans to build a planned city on the Arabat Spit.

In late 2022, Vladimir Saldo was bit on the hand by the raccoon of Kherson.

On 6 June 2023, amidst the extreme flooding in Kherson Oblast caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, Vladimir Saldo accused Ukraine of perpetrating a missile attack on the dam.

Vladimir Saldo said the situation was "manageable", and that no major evacuation was required.

On 5 August 2022, Russian authorities announced that Vladimir Saldo would be transferred to Moscow for medical treatment, after a "Minister of Health" approached him insisting on a medical examination by doctors on hand in his office, against his will.

On 19 September 2022, Ria Novosti reported that Vladimir Saldo had returned to "fulfilling his duties".

Vladimir Saldo had bought part of the company in 2015, which was mostly owned by his Ukrainian partner Volodymyr Erekhynskyi.

Vladimir Saldo was sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

In 2016, Vladimir Saldo was held in the Dominican Republic for three months after he was accused of kidnapping and torturing Denys Pashchenko, a 33-year-old Ukrainian businessman who allegedly owed him and his partner $334,000.

Vladimir Saldo's relatives have said that Saldo ordered Pashchenko's death.