The defendant may be sentenced to life imprisonment. Ukrainian justice has opened more than 11,000 investigations into abuses by Russian troops since the start of the invasion.
A Russian soldier pleaded guilty on Wednesday to killing a Ukrainian citizen before a court in Kyiv, where the first trial for alleged war crimes since the war is underway. invasion of ukraine by Moscow soldiers.
Petty officer wearing a blue and khaki hooded sweater Vadim Shishmarin He is left alone in his glass ‘box’ in a small courtroom in the Solomyansky district in Kiev.
After reading the indictment, he was questioned whether he recognized the charges. “Yes,” she replied. “Totally?”, the magistrate continued, to which the soldier responded positively.
Shishimarin, Day 21 AOS, Alleged murder of 62-year-old civilian He could be sentenced in northeastern Ukraine on February 28. Life sentence for war crime and planned murder,
The trial, the first of many to be held in the short term, will be a test for the Ukrainian judicial system at a time when international institutions begin their investigations into alleged abuses committed by Russian troops in the country.
Several international journalists broke into small courtrooms to follow the online broadcast of this hearing. According to the indictment, Sergeant Vadim Shishmarin was leading a small unit within a tank division when his convoy was attacked on February 28, four days after the start of the Russian offensive. Then he robbed a car along with four other soldiers.
As they were driving near the town of Shupakhivka in the Sumy region (northeast), they found a man pushing his bicycle while talking on his mobile phone. “One of the soldiers ordered the defendant to kill the civilian so that he would not condemn them”According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office
Shishimarin then fired Kalashnikov from the vehicle’s windows, and The man “died on the spot”A few dozen meters from his home, connects to this source.
In early May, Ukrainian authorities announced his arrest without giving further details, although they published a video in which Vadim Shishmarin said that he had come to Ukraine to fight “to help his mother financially”.
Regarding the charges against him, the Russian non-commissioned officer explained: “I received an order to shoot, I fired once, he fell and we continued on our way.” In court, prosecutor Andrey Sinyuk stated that The defendant was arrested along with three other soldiers on 1 March The fifth had been killed in a fight some time ago. The hearing has been adjourned for later, and will continue with testimony on Thursday.
The case is complicated, says the defendant’s lawyer, Viktor Ovsiyannikov. “We have never had allegations like this in Ukraine, we have no precedents, verdicts”, he pointed out. “But we will succeed,” Ovsyannikov assured, adding that he did not find “any violation of the rights” of the accused by the authorities.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova outlined on Twitter the importance of the case to her country in a series of messages. “We have opened more than 11,000 investigations for war crimes and arrested 40 suspects”He has written.
“With this first trial, we send a clear signal: no executioner, any person who ordered or helped to commit a crime in Ukraine, is not an evasive of justice, ” They said.
Ukrainian officials don’t want to waste time and, this Thursday, two other Russian soldiers will begin attempting to fire projectiles at civilian infrastructure in Ukraine’s northeastern region. jarkovSecond city in the country.
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