Ukraine war: Russian soldier pleads guilty to killing unarmed civilian in first war crimes trial

A Russian soldier pleaded guilty to a murder on Wednesday in the first war crimes trial in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.

Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is accused of committing the murder of an unarmed 62-year-old civilian on February 28, just four days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Shishimarin testified that he only shot the civilian on the orders of his superior. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

“I ordered to shoot” Shishimarin He said from the accident. “I shot one [round] Has. Drops. And we kept moving forward.”

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Kremlin officials said in a statement on Wednesday that they had no information about the trial. Ukraine Preliminary sessions held for the first time In the Shishimarin case on Friday.

“We still have no information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP. “And the ability to provide assistance due to the absence of our diplomatic mission is very limited.”

Russian Army Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, behind a glass during a hearing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

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President Joe Biden and other world leaders have called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stand trial for war crimes over Russia’s conduct of the invasion.

The accusations reached a boiling point when Russian forces conducted a hasty withdrawal from the vicinity of Kyiv last month. Leaving clues behind They massacred civilians and forced others to dig mass graves in the town of Bucha.

Ukraine has yet to start a trial directly related to Bucha’s atrocities.