The Kyiv court announced on Friday that the life sentence of a Russian soldier found guilty of killing a civilian in Ukraine in May has been reduced to 15 years on appeal.
The Kyiv Appeals Court said in a statement that the new sentence was “15 years in prison” and said, “The defense’s appeal was partially met. The court’s decision … was changed.”
Sergeant Vadim Chichimarine, 21, admitted on February 24 that he shot and killed 62-year-old civilian Oleksandre Chelipov in the northeast of the country in the first days of the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine.
After pleading guilty, on 23 May he was found guilty of war crimes and willful manslaughter.
Chichimarine testified in court that she acted under pressure from another soldier while trying to flee to Russia in a stolen car with four other soldiers.
The soldier, originally from the Siberian city of Irkutsk, “asked for forgiveness” during a short conversation with Chelipov’s widow at the Kyiv court in May.
Russian forces are accused of war crimes and abuses by the Ukrainian authorities, especially during the occupation of the capital’s slums, from which they withdrew at the end of March. They are also accused by Kyiv of arbitrary arrests and torture in the territories they occupied in southern Ukraine.
source: Noticias
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