Collaborator Saldo receives new suspicion — for illegal removal of Ukrainian children from Kherson

Ukrainian law enforcement officers reported in absentia suspicion to the so-called governor of Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo and two of his accomplices for illegally transporting Ukrainian children from Kherson to Crimea.

This was reported to SBU.

According to the investigation, on October 7, 2022, students of the Kherson Professional Shipbuilding Lyceum were illegally taken to so-called sanatoriums in temporarily occupied Crimea. First, the children were taken by buses to the river port, from there by boats to the left bank of the Kherson region, and then by other transport to Crimea.

Viktor Loginov — a former Russian military man who was appointed “deputy director” of the lyceum by the occupiers — helped Saldo organize the removal of the children. According to the investigation, he entered false information into the institution’s documents to conceal the removal of the children.

Another person involved — Mykola Dolzhenko (a teacher at the then-seized lyceum) — accompanied the students on the way to Crimea.

SBU notes that the defendants violated Article 49 of the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits the forcible transfer of protected persons from occupied territory. All three were charged in absentia with war crimes committed by a group of people.

• In November 2023, Volodymyr Saldo was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison for treason, collaborationism, and denial of Russiaʼs war against Ukraine.
• In 2024, he was also charged in absentia with the theft of almost 3 000 tons of Ukrainian grain. And in January 2026, the “governor” of the Kherson region was suspected of creating a so-called volunteer battalion on the left bank of the region in support of the Russian military and calling on local residents to join it.

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