Baby-faced Russian tank commander on trial for war crimes
A BABY-faced Russian tank commander was marched into court in Kyiv yesterday to face the first war crimes prosecution since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is accused of gunning down an unarmed 62-year-old with an AK-47 fired from the window of a stolen car as he and four comrades tore through a village on the fourth day of the war.
The victim was pushing a bicycle by the roadside when he was shot in the head and ‘died on the spot a few dozen metres from his home’, the Ukrainian prosecutor general said.
Shishimarin has confessed he was ordered by a superior to kill the man so he would not report them to Ukrainian soldiers.
Investigators said they had collected evidence of his involvement, finding him ‘in violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder’. He faces life in prison.
The incident happened in the village of Chupakhivka in the occupied region of Sumy on February 28. Investigators said they had obtained a confession from Shishimarin.
Ukraine’s security service, known as the SBU, posted a ‘confession’ video of Shishimarin describing how he shot the man. ‘I was ordered to shoot,’ he said. ‘I shot one [round] at him. He falls. And we kept on going.’
Scores of journalists packed the small courtroom where the shaven-headed suspect appeared in a small glass cage wearing a blue and grey outfit.
Lawyers held a brief discusof sion before the judges left the courtroom, then returned to say the proceedings would continue next Wednesday.
Defence attorney Victor Ovsyanikov acknowledged the case against the soldier – commander unit 32010, 4th Tank Kantemirov Division of the Moscow Region – is ‘strong’. But he said he and his client had not yet decided how he will plead.
The indictment said that while driving through Chupakhivka, Shishimarin and four other Russian troops saw the victim talking on the phone. ‘One of the soldiers ordered the sergeant to kill a civilian not to allow him to report any information to Ukrainian defenders,’ it added.
Another Russian soldier, Mikhail Romanov, who is accused of rape and murder in the Brovarsky region near Kyiv, will be tried in absentia in Kyiv next week after the suspect fled back to Russia.
‘I was ordered to shoot’