Saldu and two of his accomplices are suspected of committing a war crime for illegally taking Ukrainian children to Crimea

SBU and the Office of the Attorney General have in absentia notified Volodymyr Saldo, the head of the occupation administration of the Russian Federation on the left-bank part of Kherson region, and two of his associates of suspicion.

According to the investigation, they organized the illegal relocation of students from the Kherson Vocational Boat-Building Lyceum to the temporarily occupied Crimea.

According to the investigation, 7 in October 2022 year, the children were first taken by bus to a river port, then transported by boats to the left-bank of Kherson region, from where they were sent by other transport to the peninsula under the pretext of recuperation in so-called “sanatoriums.”

To organize the relocation, as the law enforcement authorities claim, Saldo involved Viktor Loginov, who at that time held the position of deputy director of the lyceum. The investigation believes that he entered false information into the institution’s documentation to conceal the children’s removal. Another defendant, lyceum teacher Mykola Dolzhenko, accompanied the students to Crimea.

The three defendants are charged with a war crime committed by a premeditated group of persons — part 2 of article 28 and part 1 of article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. According to the SBU, they are hiding on the temporarily occupied territory. In another criminal proceeding, Saldo has already been sentenced in absentia to 15 years of imprisonment.