Ukraine on Friday launched a trial against a Russian soldier accused of killing a Ukrainian civilian, the first trial for war crimes in the country since Moscow invaded its neighbor.

Dozens of journalists packed the small courtroom in kyiv where the accused appeared in a crowded glass cubicle. The start of the trial has garnered international attention at the center repeated accusations of atrocities made by Russian troops.

Sergeant Vadim Shyshimarin, 21, is accused of shooting a Ukrainian man in the head 62 in the northeastern town of Chupakhivka.

may sentenced to life imprisonment. The incident took place in the early days of the war, when the tanks advancing to kyiv suffered an unexpected defeat and their riders retreated.

Shyshimarin, a member of a captured unit, admitted shooting the civilian in a video released by the Ukrainian Security Service.

“they ordered me to shoot“said the soldier about the murder on February 28.” I shot him once. He fell and we moved on. “

Shyshimarin’s statement was “one of the first confessions by enemy occupiers,” according to Ukraine’s security services.

Shyshimarin’s lawyer Victor Ovsyanikov admitted that the case against him was strong but said the final decision on what evidence would be allowed would be made by the kyiv court. Ovsyanikov said Thursday that he and his client they have not yet decided whether not to sin or to sin.

The trial of Shyshimarin, 21, who was part of a tank unit captured by Ukrainian forces, will take place while Ukraine’s prosecutor general conducts a increasing number of investigations into murder allegationstorture and abuse of civilians by Russian forces.

Iryna Venediktova’s office said the prosecutor was studying more than 10,700 possible war crimes They implicated more than 600 suspects, including soldiers and Moscow government officials.

Many of the alleged atrocities were revealed last month after Moscow troops abandoned their attempt to take kyiv and retreated from the outskirts of the capital, exposing graves and streets and courtyards full of corpses in towns like Bucha.

falling in front

On the ground, Russia did not make significant progress despite concentrating its forces in the Donbas after leaving the rest of the country, Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Moscow has lost the “significant” element of at least one tactical battalion, numbering about 1,000 soldiers, as well as equipment used in the deployment of the temporary floating bridge as it tries to cross the Siverskyi Donets River west of Severodonetsk, British authorities added.

“Crossing rivers in a controversial environment This is a high risk maneuver showing pressure by Russian commanders to make progress in their operations in eastern Ukraine, ” they added in their daily briefing on the war.

For his part, the head of the Ukrainian army in the eastern region of Luhansk said on Friday that, on the eve, Russian troops fired on residential areas 31 times and destroyed dozens of houses, especially in towns of Hirske and Popasnianska, along a bridge to Rubizhne.

Russia’s advance in the Donbas was slow but his troops occupied some territory and took some villages.

On the other hand, Ukrainian officials they said another Russian ship had been removed from the Black Seabut Moscow did not confirm the incident and reported no possible casualties.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said the logistics ship Vsevolod Bobrov was severely damaged, although it is believed not to have sunk, when it was trying to deliver an anti-aircraft system to Snake Island.

Source: AP and EFE