Russian sentenced to life in first war crimes trial
Donbas region faces constant shelling; civilians trying to flee
KYIV, UKRAINE A captured Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian was sentenced by a Ukrainian court Monday to life in prison — the maximum — amid signs the Kremlin may, in turn, put on trial some of the fighters who surrendered at Mariupol’s steelworks.
Meanwhile, in a rare public expression of opposition to the war from the ranks of the Russian elite, a veteran Kremlin diplomat resigned and sent a scathing letter to foreign colleagues in which he said of the invasion, “Never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24.”
Also, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for “maximum” sanctions against Russia in a video address to world leaders and executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
And on the battlefield, heavy fighting raged in the Donbas in the east, where Moscow’s forces have stepped up their bombardment. Cities not under Russian control were constantly shelled, and one Ukrainian official said Russian forces targeted civilians trying to flee.
In the first of what could be a multitude of war crimes trials held by Ukraine, Russian Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, was sentenced for the killing of a 62-year-old man who was shot in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the opening days of the war.
Shishimarin, a member of a tank unit, had claimed he was following orders, and he apologized to the man’s widow in court.
His Ukraine-appointed defence attorney, Victor Ovsyanikov, argued his client had been unprepared for the “violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops encountered when they invaded. He said he would appeal.
Ukrainian civil liberties advocate Volodymyr Yavorskyy said it was “an extremely harsh sentence for one murder during the war.” But Aarif Abraham, a British-based human rights lawyer, said the trial was conducted “with what appears to be full and fair due process,” including access to an attorney.
Ukrainian prosecutors are now investigating thousands of potential war crimes. Russian forces in Mariupol bombed a theater where civilians were sheltering and struck a maternity hospital. In the wake of Moscow’s withdrawal from around Kyiv weeks ago, mass graves were discovered and streets were strewn with bodies in towns such as Bucha.
Russian authorities have threatened retaliate and hold trials of captured Ukrainians — namely, fighters who held out at Mariupol’s shattered steel plant, the last stronghold of resistance in the strategic southern port city. They surrendered and were taken prisoner last week, at which point Moscow claimed the capture of Mariupol was complete.
Russia’s main investigative body said it intends to interrogate the Mariupol defenders to “identify the nationalists” and determine whether they were involved in crimes against civilians.
Family members of the fighters have pleaded for their return to Ukraine as part of a prisoner swap.
Meanwhile, Boris Bondarev, a veteran Russian diplomat at the UN office at Geneva, quit and sent a letter denouncing the “aggressive war unleashed” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bondarev told The Associated Press: “It is intolerable what my government is doing now.”
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said last week’s attack on the town of Desna resulted in 87 deaths. Besides Russia’s bombing strike at a movie theater in Mariupol, Desna may be one of the largest death tolls of any single strike during the war.
He said the Russian army has launched 1,474 missile strikes on Ukraine since Feb. 24, using 2,275 different missiles.
And at the UN, Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Roscoe, told a Security Council meeting on the use of digital technologies in maintaining peace that Russia has conducted cyberattacks and used “an online troll factory to spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion about their war.”