Let him rot in prison...
Widow stares down Russian soldier in war crimes trial
A BABY-faced Russian tank commander who shot a Ukrainian grandfather dead was stared down in court yesterday by his victim’s widow – who said he should ‘rot in jail’.
Vadim Shishimarin, 21, pleaded guilty to murder at Ukraine’s first war crimes trial after blasting Oleksandr Shelypov, 62, four times in the head.
Kateryna Shelypova told the Daily Mail that her husband of 39 years had been a ‘peaceful pensioner’ who had posed no threat to Russian soldiers.
Mr Shelypov had served in the Russian military as a KGB bodyguard to former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. In a cruel twist of fate he was murdered 40 years later in the invasion ordered by president Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB intelligence officer. A packed courtroom in Kyiv heard that Mr Shelypov was pushing his bicycle home when he was gunned down in cold blood yards from his front door in the northeastern village of Chupakhivka on February 28, the fifth day of the war.
Shishimarin fired an AK-47 assault rifle from the open window of a stolen car as his unit fled Ukrainian forces who had blown up their tank.
The sergeant, from Irkutsk in Siberia, had confessed to shooting Mr Shelypov on orders from a superior officer.
The victim’s wife, 61, had travelled five hours by car to Kyiv from her home in rural Ukraine, just 50 miles from the Russian border, to confront her husband’s killer in court yesterday. Mrs Shelypova told the Daily Mail: ‘I came to see him in person. He looked like a child, but nevertheless he will get his punishment.’
She called her husband’s death ‘senseless’, adding: ‘He was just passing by, he did not pose any threat to anyone.’
Speaking of Shishimarin, she said: ‘I know he is a serviceman and he is following orders but why didn’t he shoot at the ground or in the air? He should rot in jail, and spend the rest of his days thinking about what he has done.’ Mrs Shelypova insisted she felt ‘no hatred’ towards her husband’s killer.
She was due to take the stand at Kyiv Appeal Court today to give evidence to judges who are considering whether to hand Shishimarin a maximum life sentence.
Despite the guilty plea, prosecutor Andrii Syniuk persuaded the judges to hear all the evidence in the case so they could be ‘coolheaded’ in their decision-making.
Shishimarin will also be asked to give evidence, alongside three other Russian soldiers who were with him in the car.
Evidence will be provided, including the gun used in the killing, Mr Syniuk said. The shavenheaded defendant entered the dock yesterday wearing a prisonissue blue and grey tracksuit. He kept his head bowed as he listened to his interpreter during the 30minute hearing.
Prosecutors said he confessed to the killing soon after he was arrested by police on March 1.
Asked by Judge Serhii Ahafonov whether he pleaded guilty, he replied quietly: ‘Yes.’
All eyes are on the case, which is the first war crimes trial brought by Ukrainian authorities investigating more than 11,000 allegations of murder and rape by Russian troops. Prosecutors are keen to avoid accusations from Russia that it is not a fair trial.
The judge was at pains to ask Shishimarin, who has a stateappointed defence lawyer, whether he knew his legal rights, that he had a copy of the indictment in Russian and that he was aware of what was happening. ‘Yes,’ mumbled the defendant.
Mrs Shelypova said her husband, a grandfather-of-two, had gone out to see a Russian tank that had been blown up. ‘I was arguing with him, saying it was not safe to go out,’ she said. ‘He said, “I’ll be fine, it is only round the corner, I’ll see you later”. Those were the last words he said to me.’
He was killed in a drive-by shooting when Shishimarin, a commander in Moscow’s 4th Tank Regiment, wound down the window of a stolen Volkswagen Passat. Shishimarin was captured in a shootout with residents of a neighbouring village who had armed themselves with hunting rifles to
‘He looked like a child’
fight the Russians. He said he was ordered to kill Mr Shelypov because it was feared the pensioner, who had a phone in his hand, had spotted the fleeing tank unit and was about to report their whereabouts to enemy troops.
Mrs Shelypova said that years earlier her husband had served with pride as a conscript in the Russian army. After completing his training in Moldova in 1979, he spent two years with a bodyguard unit commanded by the KGB, and was stationed at Brezhnev’s summer residence in Crimea.
After finishing his military duty, he worked as a tractor driver.
Mrs Shelypova said her husband was ‘enraged’ by the invasion, adding: ‘It was a great shock to all of us. No one expected this.’