The first trial of a Russian soldier for war crimes in Ukraine since the invasion concluded Monday with Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old from Siberia, sentenced to life in prison for premeditated murder and violating international laws for war.
Shishimarin, a captured Russian tank-unit sergeant, fatally shot Oleksandr Shelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, in the head in late February. Shishimarin had pleaded guilty, but his defense had argued he was carrying out a direct order that he initially disobeyed.
“The guilt of the accused was fully confirmed,” the court ruled. “Shishimarin, being a Russian serviceman, violated the laws and customs of war.”
Last week Shishimarin had asked Shelipov’s widow, Kateryna, for forgiveness. She said she wanted a life sentence to be handed down, but also that she would be willing to see Shishimarin returned to Russia in an exchange for Ukrainian fighters who surrendered to Russian forces at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
During the trial the three-judge panel heard that Shishimarin was ordered to kill the man so he wouldn’t be able to report them to Ukrainian military authorities. Shishimarin fired his Kalashnikov rifle at the victim through the open window of a car.
“I was nervous about what was going on. I didn’t want to kill,” Shishimarin said at the hearing in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Judge Serhiy Ahafonov said he did not consider the defendant’s remorse sincere.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova previously said her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offenses that included bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting. Venediktova’s office has collected more than 10,700 allegations of war crimes against Russia involving more than 600 suspects, including Russian soldiers and government officials.
Latest developments:
►The Russian military on Monday released footage of de-mining specialists working at the Azostal steel mill in Mariupol. Russia’s Defense Ministry told state-run RIA Novosti news agency that more than 100 explosives were destroyed since the final Ukraine holdouts surrendered.
►Russia pressed its offensive in eastern Ukraine on Sunday as Polish President Andrzej Duda traveled to Kyiv to support Poland’s European Union aspirations, becoming the first foreign leader to address the Ukrainian parliament since the start of the war.
►German chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he will “work actively” to enable grain exports from Ukraine and to supply fertilizer to Ukraine, Reuters reported. Russia has blocked Black Sea ports that are vital to exporting Ukrainian wheat and other crops, fueling rocketing pric
Russian casualty rate high – and rising, British assessment says
In the first three months of its “special military operation,” Russia has likely suffered a similar death toll to that experienced by the Soviet Union during its entire nine-year war in Afghanistan, the British Defense Ministry said in it’s latest assessment of the war in Ukraine. About 15,000 Russians died in the Afghan war that ended in 1989.
“Poor low-level tactics, limited air cover, a lack of flexibility, and a command approach which is prepared to reinforce failure and repeat mistakes has led to this high casualty rate (in Ukraine), which continues to rise in the Donbas offensive,” the assessment says.
It adds that the Russian public has, in the past, “proven sensitive to casualties suffered during wars of choice.” As the death toll rises and the human cost becomes more apparent, public dissatisfaction with the war and a willingness to voice it may grow.
Fighters who surrendered at steel mill to face ‘international tribunal’
The head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine says almost 2,500 fighters from the Azovstal steel mill captured by the Russian forces will face “international tribunal” there. Denis Pushilin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that “at the moment the charter for the tribunal is being worked out.”
Family members of the fighters taken prisoner at the mill have pleaded for them to be given rights as prisoners of war and eventually returned to Ukraine.
Ex-Defense Secretary: Russia unlikely to use nuclear weapons
Even with the Biden, Harris on Russia’s banned list, but not Trump