From the BBC:
“Ukraine war: Russian soldier
Vadim Shishimarin jailed for life over war crime”
(Vadim Shishimarin in court in
Kyiv, 23 May)
A court in Ukraine has jailed a
Russian tank commander for life for killing a civilian at the first war crimes
trial since the invasion. Captured soldier Sgt Vadim Shishimarin was convicted
of killing Oleksandr Shelipov, 62, in the north-eastern village of Chupakhivka
on 28 February. He admitted shooting Mr Shelipov but said he had been acting on
orders and asked forgiveness of his widow. Multiple other alleged war crimes
are being investigated by Ukraine. Moscow has denied its troops targeted
civilians during the invasion, despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary,
while Ukraine says more than 11,000 crimes may have occurred. Moscow said
earlier on Monday that it was concerned at the fate of the Russian soldier and
would look at options to defend him. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted,
however, that Russia did "not have the capacity to protect his interests
in person". Russia's embassy in Kyiv is currently closed.
Imposing the life sentence, Judge
Serhiy Agafonov said Shishimarin had carried out a "criminal order"
by a soldier of higher rank. "Given that the crime committed is a crime
against peace, security, humanity and the international legal order... the
court does not see the possibility of imposing a [shorter] sentence of
imprisonment," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. Shishimarin,
wearing a blue and grey hooded sweatshirt, watched proceedings silently from a
reinforced glass box in the courtroom and showed no emotion as the verdict was
read out, Reuters notes. His lawyer said an appeal would be lodged against the
verdict.
Shishimarin, 21, served in
Russia's prestigious Kantemirovskaya tank division. At the time of the killing,
he and other soldiers were travelling in a car they had seized after their
convoy came under attack and they became separated from their unit. When they
spotted Mr Shelipov he was speaking on his phone, Shishimarin told the court.
He says he was told to shoot him with an assault rifle. His defence lawyer told
the court on Friday that Shishimarin had only fired after twice refusing to
carry out the order to shoot and that only one out of three to four rounds had
hit the target. He said Shishimarin had fired the rounds out of fear for his
own safety and he questioned whether the defendant had intended to kill.
('What did my husband do to you?'
widow Kateryna Shelipova asked the Russian soldier during the trial)
In one dramatic moment during the
trial, the victim's widow Kateryna Shelipova confronted Shishimarin. "Tell
me please, why did you [Russians] come here? To protect us?" she asked,
citing Russian President Vladimir Putin's justification for the invasion of
Ukraine. "Protect us from whom? Did you protect me from my husband, whom
you killed?" The soldier had no answer to that. Asking forgiveness of the
widow earlier, he said: "But I understand you won't be able to forgive
me." Mrs Shelipova told the BBC: "I feel very sorry for him but for a
crime like that - I can't forgive him."
^ You can even see the difference
between Ukraine and Russia in all of this. If this trial was happening in Moscow
the Soldier would have been sentenced to Forced Hard Labor in a Corrective
Penal Colony (the modern-day Gulag.) Putin would have also decided his fate
himself before the trial even started.
Since this happened in Kyiv the
Soldier is only going to spend life in prison (no forced hard labor) and
Zelensky didn’t decide his fate (before or during the trial.) ^
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