The first Russian soldier to be tried for a war crime in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian occupation pleaded guilty Wednesday, pleading guilty to all charges against him.

When asked if he “unconditionally” admitted all action, including charges of war crimes and willful murder, 21-year-old Petty Officer Vadim Shishimarin said “yes”.

Shishimarin shot an unarmed 62-year-old man cycling in northeastern Ukraine. The young Russian soldier appeared before a judge at the Solomiansky District Court in Kiev.

A Ukrainian civilian was mortally wounded at the start of the Russian offensive on February 28. According to the indictment, Vadim Shishimarin commanded a unit of the tank division when his convoy was attacked. He left the tank with four other soldiers and stole a car. The fleeing group found the 62-year-old man on a bicycle while walking near the village of Shupakhivka in the Sumi district.

“One of the armies ordered the suspect to kill the civilian so he wouldn’t report them,” said Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office. Shishimarin obeyed. From the window of the car, Kalashnikov shot at the victim with a machine gun.

“The man died at the scene, a few dozen meters from his home,” the prosecutor’s office added in a statement.

A soldier born in Irkutsk, Siberia, accused of war crimes and willful murder, could face a life sentence.

Ukraine confirms ‘pause’ in talks with Russia on war

An adviser to the Ukrainian presidency confirmed on Tuesday that peace talks with Russia are “on hold” because, according to him, Moscow is reluctant to accept that the conditions that existed at the start of the war had changed significantly.

The adviser in question, Mikhail Podolyak, said that the Russian government did not understand “the processes currently occurring in the world” regarding the occupation and that the war was no longer “running on the basis of Kremlin norms”. plans and goals”.

In the words quoted by the Ukrainskaya Pravda newspaper, Podolyak added that Moscow also did not want to give up on internal propaganda, and the political elite could not accept that the Russian army had to withdraw “under conditions completely different from what was planned”.

*With information from AFP and RFI