A Russian soldier accused of killing an elderly civilian in Ukraine will face trial in Kyiv on Friday in the first war crimes trial since Moscow launched its brutal invasion in February.
21-year-old Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin is accused of shooting at an unarmed 62-year-old Ukrainian in the northeastern village of Chupahivka in the Sumy region. Under Ukrainian law, he could face up to life in prison.
Viktor Ovsyanikov, who is defending himself, acknowledged that the case against the alleged killer is strong, but said the final decision on what evidence to admit will still be made by the court.
Ovsyanikov said that he and the defendant have not yet decided how he will plead.
The trial of Shishimarin, a captured member of a tank unit, comes as Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, Irina Venediktova, conducts a growing number of investigations into allegations that President Vladimir Putin’s troops killed, tortured and abused civilians.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova examines exhumed bodies of civilians killed during Russian occupation of Bucha
(AP)
Ms. Venediktov’s office said it was investigating more than 10,700 potential war crimes involving more than 600 suspects, including Russian soldiers and government officials.
Revelations of alleged massacres of civilians began to spread after Russia withdrew its troops from northeastern Ukraine after a failed attempt to take the capital.
Bucha, a city about 25km (15.5 miles) west of Kyiv, was among the first areas to provoke international condemnation and disgrace after images of mass graves and streets dotted with bodies surfaced.
At the beginning of the war crimes case in Ukraine, all eyes were on Shishimarin’s accusation.
More than a dozen bags of bodysuits are waiting to be collected in a refrigerated truck, Bucha
(Getty)
One of Ukraine’s largest human rights groups has said activists will monitor the trial of the Russian soldier to ensure his legal rights are protected. It may be difficult, he said, to maintain the neutrality of war proceedings.
Adherence to the rules and regulations of the process “will determine how such cases will be dealt with in the future,” said Vladimir Jaworski, coordinator at the Center for Civil Liberties in Kyiv.
Vadim Karasev, an independent political analyst based in Kyiv, said it was important that Ukrainian authorities “demonstrate that war crimes will be detected and those responsible will be brought to justice in accordance with international standards.”
Last week, Venediktov, her office, and the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s law enforcement agency, published several details of the investigation into Shishimarin’s actions in their social media accounts.
On February 28, four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Shishimarin was among a group of Russian troops defeated by Ukrainian forces, according to Venediktov.
While the Russians were fleeing, they allegedly fired at a private car and captured the car. They then headed to Chupahivka, a village in the Sumy region about 200 miles east of Kyiv.
The grave of a 62-year-old civilian who was shot dead on Yablunska Street in Bucha on March 5th
(AFP / Getty)
Along the way, Venediktov said, Russian soldiers saw a man walking on the sidewalk and talking on his phone. Shishimarin was ordered to kill the man so that he could not report them to the Ukrainian military authorities. She did not identify who gave the order.
Shishimarin fired his Kalashnikov rifle through the open window and hit the victim in the head.
Ukrainian soldier looks at bags of corpses while priests pray at a mass grave in the area around St. Andrew’s Church in Bucha
(AFP / Getty)
“The man died on the spot only a few tens of meters from his house,” Venediktova wrote.
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, released a short video on May 4, in which Shishimarin spoke in front of a camera and briefly described how he shot the man.
The SBU described the video as “one of the first confessions of enemy invaders.”
“I was ordered to shoot,” said Shishimarin, wearing a blue-and-gray hooded sweatshirt. “I shot one [round] to him. He falls. And we moved on. “
With additional reports from the AP
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