Life sentence handed to Russian soldier for war crimes in Ukraine

A Kyiv court has found a 21-year-old Russian soldier who killed a civilian guilty of war crimes and handed him a life sentence.

Russian sergeant Vadim Shishimarin listens to the court sentencing from the defendant's box on the last day of his trial on charges of war crimes in Ukraine. Picture: AFP

A Kyiv court has found a 21-year-old Russian soldier who killed a civilian guilty of war crimes and handed him a life sentence, in the first verdict against Moscow’s forces since their invasion.

Russian sergeant Vadim Shishimarin admitted in court to killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov during the first days of the Kremlin’s offensive in northeast Ukraine. He was also found guilty of premeditated murder.

“The court has found that Shishimarin is guilty and sentences him to life imprisonment,” judge Sergiy Agafonov said.

“The murder was committed with direct intent. Shishimarin violated the laws and customs of war.”

The soldier told the court last week that he had shot Shelipov under pressure from another soldier as they tried to retreat to Russia in a stolen car on February 28, the fourth day of Moscow’s invasion.

Shishimarin apologised and asked Shelipov’s widow for forgiveness.

The landmark ruling is ­expected to be followed by ­others, with Ukraine opening thousands of war crimes cases since Russian President Vlad­imir Putin sent in his troops.

The youthful serviceman looked on from the glass defence box as the verdict was read out in Ukrainian. An interpreter translated for him into Russian.

Vadim Shishimarin sits in the defendant's box on the last day of his trial. Picture: AFP

Shishimarin’s lawyer Viktor Ovsyannikov said he would ­appeal the verdict. “This is the most severe sentence and any level-headed person would challenge it,” Mr Ovsyannikov said.

He said that “you can feel ­societal pressure” on the court’s decision. But prosecutor Andriy Syniuk said the ruling was fair.

“I consider the verdict to be lawful and justified,” he said, and he was “completely satisfied”.

Rights organisations have ­expressed hope that Ukraine’s trials against Russian soldiers will be impartial and transparent.

The Kremlin said before the sentencing that while it was “concerned” over Shishimarin’s fate, it was unable to provide on-the-ground assistance because there is no Russian diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t try through other channels. The fate of every Russian citizen is of paramount importance to us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

As the verdict was read out in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued his attempts to maintain Western support with a video address at the Davos summit, which this year is dominated by the fallout of the war.

He highlighted the cost to his people of the war, revealing that 87 people were killed in a Russian attack earlier this month on a military base in northern Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky insisted that tens of thousands of lives would have been saved if Kyiv had ­received “100 per cent of our needs at once back in February”.

“This is why Ukraine needs all the weapons that we ask (for), not just the ones that have been provided,” he said.

He also called for an oil embargo on Russia, punitive measures against all its banks and the shunning of its IT sector.

AFP