Saldo: Ukraine’s gangster governor – part 2 – podcast

Two years ago this week, Europe and the world changed. After months of military buildup on Ukraine’s borders, Vladimir Putin went on TV and announced Russian forces were going in.

As the Guardian’s investigations correspondent Tom Burgis tells Michael Safi, in those first, chaotic hours and days, Moscow’s forces overran Ukrainian towns and cities. In these places, mayors suddenly lost authority, the police were no longer sure whose laws they were enforcing, and even which money to use became unclear. One of these places was the region of Kherson.

It would have implications for the more than 1 million Ukrainians living there. And for one of those people, Vladimir Saldo, who had been cast out of national politics and who was suspected by the police of involvement in a contract killing, it would change everything.