Vadim Shishimarin, the first Russian to be prosecuted for war crimes by Ukraine, apologized today for killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian at the start of the invasion.
“I know you won’t be able to forgive me, but I still ask for your forgiveness,” the 21-year-old soldier told the victim’s wife, Kateryna Shelipova, at a hearing in Kiev.
The apology came a day after Shishimarin pleaded guilty to war crimes and willful murder charges.
The soldier is accused of killing an unarmed civilian with a rifle on February 28 in the Sumi region, which was occupied by Russian troops until April.
That day, Shishimarin was traveling with four soldiers in a car that was stolen after his convoy was attacked near the village of Chupakhivka.
One of the soldiers then ordered the accused to shoot the civilian who was passing by on a bicycle so as not to report it. The victim died at the scene a few steps from her home.
Shishimarin said in a statement Thursday that he at first refused to shoot the Ukrainian, but eventually gave up after he was threatened by another soldier.
The soldier from the Siberian city of Irkutsk could face a life sentence if found guilty. Asked about the matter on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had “no knowledge” of the case and that the war crimes charges against Russia were “false”.
source: Noticias
