Russian soldier sentenced to life in prison in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial since invasion
A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial following Moscow’s invasion.
Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old tank commander, pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in the village of Chupakhivka, after being ordered to shoot him.
Last week, Shishimarin told the court he did not want to kill but would accept his fate.
He told the court that an officer insisted that the Ukrainian man, who was speaking on his cellphone, could pinpoint their location to the Ukrainian forces. During the trial, Shishimarin asked the widow of the victim to forgive him. Shishimarin’s defense attorney Victor Ovsyanikov argued that his client, a member of a Russian tank unit who was eventually captured, had been unprepared for the “violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops encountered when they first invaded Ukraine.
