A Kyiv court on Monday found a 21-year-old Russian soldier who killed a civilian guilty of a war crime and sentenced him to life imprisonment. This is the first sentence passed on a Russian soldier since the invasion.
“The court found (Vadim) Shishimarin guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment,” Judge Sergey Agafonov said. Earlier, Shishimarin admitted in court that he had killed a 62-year-old Ukrainian named Oleksandr Shelipov in northeastern Ukraine on the first day of the Russian invasion.
The soldier was convicted of premeditated murder. The judge stated that “the murder was committed with direct intent … Shishimarin violated the laws and regulations of wartime.” A Russian soldier told the court last week that he shot Chelipov under pressure from another soldier as they tried to retreat and flee to Russia in a stolen car on February 28, the fourth day of the Russian invasion. Shishimarin apologized and asked for forgiveness from Chelepov’s widow.
In turn, his lawyer Viktor Ovsyanikov confirmed that he would file an appeal against this decision. “This is the most severe punishment, and any sober person appeals against it … I will ask to cancel the court’s decision,” he said. “The pressure of society is felt in the decision of the court,” he added.
Before the decision on Monday, the Kremlin said that although it was “concerned” about the fate of Shishimarin, it could not provide assistance on the ground due to the lack of a Russian diplomatic presence in Ukraine. “This does not mean that we will not try to reach out through other channels. The fate of every citizen of Russia is very important to us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. More decisions are expected to follow as Ukraine opens thousands of war crimes cases in the wake of the Russian invasion.
