Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian soldier on trial for war crimes, was sentenced to life in prison on Monday. He was found guilty in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial.
According to the BBC, the judges stressed that the victim, Oleksandr Shelipov, “posed no threat” and therefore should not have been the target of any armed threat, “in violation of international conventions”.
In court, Shishimarin pleaded guilty to the death of a 62-year-old unarmed civilian in Chupakhivka, a village in northeastern Ukraine, on February 28. “I recognize that I am guilty. I ask you to forgive me”, declared the soldier to the widow Kateryna Shalipova.
According to the Ukrainian justice, “one of the military ordered the accused to kill the civilian so that he would not report them”. In early May, Ukrainian authorities announced the arrest of the Russian fighter, releasing a video in which Vadim Shishimarin said he had gone to Ukraine to fight to “support his mother financially”.
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