Russian Sergeant. Vadim Shishimarin waits for the start of his trial in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. Judges sentenced him to life in prison in his first war crimes trial since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Natacha Pisarenko / AP
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Natacha Pisarenko / AP
Russian Sergeant. Vadim Shishimarin waits for the start of his trial in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. Judges sentenced him to life in prison in his first war crimes trial since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Natacha Pisarenko / AP
First Russian soldier to be tried for war crimes in Ukraine was sentenced to life in prison for killing a civilian.
Army sergeant major Vadim Shishimarin, 21, last week pleaded guilty to shooting dead an unarmed Ukrainian man in the early days of the war. On Monday, a panel of judges in Kyiv found him guilty of “violating the laws and customs of war, involving predestined murder” and sentenced him to life in prison, the Prosecutor General said. Iryna Venediktova wrote on Facebook.
Judge Serhiy said: “Given that the crime committed was a crime against peace, security, humanity and the international legal order… the court did not see the possibility of imposing a (shorter) sentence ) to Shishimarin for a certain period of time”. Agafnov, according to Reuters.
The incident happened on February 28 in Chupakhivka, a village in the Sumy region about 180 miles east of Kyiv.
A pre-trial investigation revealed that Shishimarin and several other soldiers had stolen a car to try to escape the village after their armored vehicle broke down. That’s when they saw the man riding a bicycle on the sidewalk and talking on the phone, and feared he might reveal their location. After his colleagues urged him to shoot the man, Shishimarin fired his Kalashnikov multiple times through the open window of his car.
“The victim is 62 years old – he died on the spot as a result of being shot in the head by a 21-year-old soldier of the foreign army,” Venediktova said.
The prosecution presented compelling evidence against Shishimarin, including matching bullets from the scene with his gun. They also had statements from a friend of the victim and one of the Russian soldiers held since their arrest, both of whom witnessed the shooting.
Shishimarin pleaded guilty to the charges against him on Wednesday. In one Dramatic moment in court, the man’s widow, Kateryna Shelipova, asked him directly how he felt when he shot her husband. Shishimarin, who took responsibility for his actions, begged for her forgiveness but admitted that he was unlikely to get it.
“I feel very sorry for him but for such a crime – I cannot forgive him,” Shelipova later said. told BBC.
Reuters said that Shishimarin showed no emotion when the ruling was read on Monday. His court-appointed Ukrainian lawyer Victor Ovsyanikov – who has argued that Shishimarin opened fire only because he was ordered to do so and his shots were aimless – told investigators. reported that he plans to appeal the ruling, according to washington articles.
While Shishimarin’s case is the first of its kind since Russia launched its official invasion in late February, it is unlikely to be the last. Ukrainian officials say they have documented more than 11,000 possible Russian war crimes to date.
And they want to respond quickly, gather evidence, and locate witnesses even as the war continues, instead of trying to recreate cases on the road.
While the International Criminal Court has sent a large team of investigators to Ukraine for this purpose, Russia is not part of that body and is expected to cooperate with the process. In fact, Ukraine may be the only entity able to prosecute these alleged war crimes.
Russia says the Shishimarin case and other similar claims about Russian atrocities against Ukrainian civilians are fake or staged.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ahead of the ruling that Russia was “concerned” about Shishimarin.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to defend his interests in practice,” he said, according to washington articles. “This is due to the lack of actual activity of our organizations [in Ukraine]. But that doesn’t mean we’ll stop looking at ways to continue the effort through other channels.”
Meanwhile, it’s possible Russia could start holding its own war crimes trials.
Last week, as Shishmarin stood firm, Ukrainian soldiers surrendered at the besieged steel mill in Mariupol. The Russians called them Nazis, and some politicians call for them to be brought to trial – even though the Geneva Conventions say that warriors cannot be put on trial simply for participating in battle.
National security reporter Greg Myre contributed to this report.
