Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday sought a life sentence for a Russian soldier in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial, in which the 21-year-old sergeant sought pardon for killing a civilian in the early days of the war.
On the second day of the trial, the prosecutor’s office asked for the maximum sentence for Vadim Shishimarin, who shot and killed 62-year-old Oleksandre Chelipov in the northeast of the country on February 28.
The accused, who accepted the events and said that he obeyed another Russian soldier, did not react to the prosecutor’s request.
The trial was later adjourned and will continue on Friday with the defense plea.
Earlier, the young soldier found himself facing his victim’s widow.
“Do you regret your crime?” asked Katerina Chelipova. “I know you won’t be able to forgive me, but I still beg your forgiveness,” replied the soldier. “But why did you come? To save us from what? What did my husband do to you?” exclaimed the woman.
Vadim Shishimarin justified himself for the “orders” received, and the conversation did not go further.
On the day of the murder, he was in the Sumy area with a set of armored vehicles. After being attacked by Ukrainian forces, he stole a car with four other soldiers. “We wanted to get back to where our military is located in Russia,” he explained.
“We saw a man talking on the phone while we were driving.” According to him, one of the soldiers in the vehicle asked him to shoot to avoid being reported.
Vadim Shishimarin initially assured that he refused. But another soldier insisted: “He told me in a harsh tone that if I fired we’d be in danger.”
But, pressured by the prosecutor, Vadim Shishimarin admitted that this man was not superior to him and did not have to obey him.
‘Wrong’ according to Kremlin
The drama took place near Chelipov’s house late in the morning, and his wife was a witness.
“I was going to draw water from the well when I heard the gunshot,” he said in court. “I opened the door, saw the car (…) and this young man” armed with an AK-47.
When she was leaving the house, she saw her husband covered in blood. “I started screaming really loud.”
Her voice, which had remained stable until then, could not identify her husband. “He was my protector. He was very kind, all the neighbors respected him.”
Despite her distress, Chelipova said she was not against a possible exchange between her husband’s murderer and Ukrainian prisoners.
“I wouldn’t mind being traded for one of the boys in Azovstal,” he said, referring to the Ukrainian soldiers who had been stationed in the steel mills in Mariupol for weeks and finally surrendered in the last days.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the country has opened more than 12,000 war crimes investigations since February 24, when the Russian invasion began.
In addition to Vadim Shishimarin, two more Russian soldiers are on trial Thursday accused of firing rockets at civilian infrastructure near Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city in the northeast.
International justice is at work as the international criminal court sends 45 experts to gather evidence.
Moscow, for its part, denies any abuse. On Wednesday, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the allegations against Russian troops as “false or staged”.
As for Vadim Shishimarin, he said, “At the moment we have no information and in the absence of diplomatic representation, the possibilities to help him are very limited.”
source: Noticias
