Volodymyr Saldo – People’s Deputy of the Kherson City Council of the VIII convocation, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the VII convocation.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on June 12, 1956 in the village of Zhovtneve, Mykolaiv region. Childhood years passed in Kryvyi Rih.
In 1978 he graduated from the Kryvyi Rih Mining Institute, having received an education at the Faculty of Industrial and Civil Engineering.
Career
During 1981-1986, he worked in Mongolia as part of a group of military advisers.
Since 1986, he held the positions of foreman, line engineer, and later chief engineer of the construction and installation department for the construction of residential buildings and socio-cultural facilities in the Khersonbud trust.
In 1991, he headed the construction and installation department No. 3.
In 2001, he took the position of Deputy Head of the Kherson Regional State Administration (RSA), responsible for housing and communal services, urban infrastructure, construction and investments.
In 2002, he became the mayor of Kherson. At that time, he was a member of the public organization “Our City is Our Home”.
From 2001 to July 22, 2004, he headed the Kherson regional branch of the Party of Regions. After that, he served as deputy head of the cell, which was headed by Volodymyr Khodakovsky, and also headed the city branch of the political force.
In 2014, he became the chairman of the board of the Kherson City Public Association of Builders and Investors “Stroyinvestsoyuz”.
Political Activities
During 1998, he received the mandate of a deputy of the Kherson City Council. In the same year, he was recognized as a corresponding member of the Academy of Civil Engineering of Ukraine.
During the parliamentary elections of 2012, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada of the VII convocation from the Party of Regions. At this time, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Construction, Urban Planning, Housing and Communal Services and Regional Policy. On January 16, 2014, he took part in the vote for “dictatorial laws”.
In the period from February 27 to October 2014, he was a member of the deputy group “Economic Development”.
During 2014, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for the second time, but without success. He lost to the candidates from the political force “Petro Poroshenko Bloc” Oleksandr Spivakovsky and the representative of the “Batkivshchyna” party Yuriy Odarchenko.
During 2015, he took part in the election race for the post of mayor of Kherson, nominating himself from the political party “Our Land”. In the first round, he received 16.88% of the vote and took the second position, after which he decided to withdraw his candidacy.
Since November, he has been a deputy of the VII convocation of the Kherson City Council, heading the “Our Land” faction.
During 2019, for the third time, he was nominated as a candidate for people’s deputies of Ukraine from the Opposition Platform – For Life ( OPFL) party. However, according to the results of the vote, he lost to the representative of the political force “Servant of the People” Pavlo Pavlish.
Collaborationism
In March 2014, while serving as a people’s deputy of Ukraine, he assisted the Russian Federation (RF) during the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, openly demonstrating pro-Russian views.
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, on March 13 of the same year , he appeared at a Russian rally held in Kherson. Later, he said that he did not support the idea of creating a so-called “people’s republic” within the Kherson region, and his presence at the event was, according to him, an alleged attempt to prevent it from taking place.
After his participation in this rally, the head of the Volodymyr Saldo Bloc faction in the Kherson Regional Council, Valeriy Lytvyn, sent an official letter to the First Deputy Chairman of the Regional Council Yuriy Sobolevskyi. The document stated that the deputies of the faction do not share his position and will continue to work in the regional council as part of the deputy group “Support for the programs of the President of Ukraine”.
He took part in a meeting of the collaborative government formation “Rescue Committee” in Kherson. Later, city council deputy Olga Spivakina published his explanation, in which he claimed that he was allegedly forced to join this event.
On March 17, 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings on charges of high treason related to the creation of a pseudo-body of “authorities” in the Kherson region. Saldo was also among the persons under suspicion.
On April 26 of the same year, he received the post of head of the occupation administration of Kherson.
On June 14, 2022, the Eighth Administrative Court of Appeal decided to ban the activities of the political force “Volodymyr Saldo Bloc” on the territory of Ukraine.
During June of the same year, he received citizenship of the Russian Federation.
On August 5, 2022, due to the alleged deterioration of his health, he was taken to Crimea, where doctors put him in a medically induced coma. The next day he was transported to Moscow and hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the poison control center. On September 12, he published a video message in which he stated that he was under the supervision of “serious doctors”.
On September 19, 2022, information appeared about his return to Kherson. During this period, he participated in the so-called “referendum” on the accession of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia.
On May 9, 2023, he published a video message in Ukrainian addressed to the Ukrainian military. He called for remembering “common parents and grandfathers.”
Sanctions
On June 3, 2022, Saldo was included in the sanctions list of EU countries “for supporting Russian aggression against Ukraine and creating a body for cooperation with the Russian occupation authorities in the Kherson region.”
On August 2, 2022, he fell under blocking sanctions of the United States of America (USA).
It is also under sanctions from the United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Ukraine and New Zealand.
Marital Status
Married to Lyubov Saldo. He has a daughter – Iryna Saldo.
