The First Russian soldier to face trial for war crimes In Ukraine, on Wednesday, the shooting and killing of an unarmed 62-year-old civilian. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, who was part of a Russian tank unit captured by Ukrainian forces in early March, just days after the start of the war, faces a possible life sentence.
Shishimarin appeared on Wednesday before the Kyiv District Court. At a preliminary hearing last week, prosecutors said Shishimarin was driving a private car with other soldiers, which they stole in an attempt to escape after their column was attacked by Ukrainian forces just days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 28. .
Efrem Lukatsky/AFP
They drove to the village of Chupakhivka, where they came across the victim, a 62-year-old man riding a bicycle and talking on his phone.
Prosecutors said Shishimarin ordered the civilian shot to prevent him from telling Ukrainian defenders the location of the Russians. They said that Shishimarin fired several shots from his open car window into the victim’s head, killing him instantly.
Ukrainian officials say the shooting was videotaped by the country’s state security service, but that video has not been seen by CBS News.
“I ordered the shooting,” Shishimarin said in a confession video shown by prosecutors last week and apparently released by Ukrainian authorities. “I shot him one. He fell. We kept going.”
Ukraine’s National Security Service described Shishimarin’s visible statement as “one of the first confessions of enemy invaders”.
Ukraine, along with the United States and other countries in the international community, has accused Russia of committing atrocities against civilians during its war on Ukraine, and says it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes.
Russia denied targeting civilians and accused Ukraine of atrocities.
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