Volodymyr Saldo

Vladimir Vasilyevich Saldo (Владимир Васильевич Сальдо, Володимир Васильович Сальдо; born 12 June 1956) is a Ukrainian and Russian politician serving as the acting governor of the collaborationist annexed Kherson Oblast in Russian-occupied Ukraine since 4 October 2022.

A member of the ruling United Russia, he previously served as the head of the Kherson military-civilian administration from 26 April to 4 October 2022.

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.

In 1978 he graduated from the Kryvyi Rih Mining Institute with a degree in industrial and civil construction.

From 1978 to 2001, he worked as an engineer and head of installation departments at the Khersonpromstroy plant.

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

In 2001, he joined the Party of Regions and was named the head of its regional branch in Kherson Oblast.

In 2001, he was named deputy governor of Kherson Oblast, in charge of construction, housing and communal services, and served until 2002.

Prior to the invasion, Saldo served three terms as mayor of Kherson from 2002 to 2012, and later as a People's Deputy in the Verkhovna Rada from 2012 to 2014, representing the pro-Russian Party of Regions.

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

He 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 Saldo would have once again faced Sokolov as his main opponent, Solokov died in an car accident.

During the election itself in 2006, Saldo won re-election to a second term.

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

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

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 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".

Kherson journalist Konstantin Ryzhenko said that "Saldo has become a symbol of decline, economic ruin, corruption, forcible takeovers and gang violence", and that the former mayor's name was "connected to a few very suspicious deaths", none of which were "investigated properly".

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

Following his election, he was named the deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's committee for construction, urban planning, housing and communal services and regional policy.

During the Revolution of Dignity, Saldo became a recurring figure on Russian state TV, and actively condemned the Euromaidan protests.

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

After the end of the Revolution of Dignity, Saldo experienced a political decline.

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

In 2015, he ran for Mayor of Kherson as a member of Our Land, but lost.

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

In 2019, he founded the Volodymyr Saldo Bloc political party, and in 2020 was re-elected to the City Council, while finishing second in the mayoral election again, losing to Ihor Kolykhaiev.

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Saldo took a pro-Russian position.

On 13 March, he took part in a pro-Russian rally in Kherson.

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

The head of the Volodymyr Saldo Bloc on the Kherson Oblast Council, Valery Lytvyn, sent a letter to the first deputy chairman of the Oblast Council Yuriy Sobolevsky, stating that the deputies did not agree with Saldo's choice to attend the 13 March rally.

Deputies of the bloc announced that they would continue their activities in the Kherson Oblast Council as part of a new faction, titled the "Support to the programs of the President of Ukraine" faction.

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.

Following the meeting, Olga Spivakina, a deputy of the city council, posted Saldo's statement on Facebook, in which he claimed that he had been taken captive and forced to participate in the meeting.

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

Following a Ukrainian missile attack on Kherson on 27 April, Saldo stated that "Kyiv abandoned people from Kherson".

On 20 December 2022, President Putin awarded Saldo the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland".

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

During an interview on the same day, Saldo stated that Kherson Oblast was already an "integral part of the big family of Russia".

On 11 June, he received a Russian passport, and was quoted as saying "For me, this is a truly historic moment. I have always thought that we [Ukraine and Russia] are one country and one people."