Ukraine will host its first war crimes trial over Moscow’s invasion of a 21-year-old Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed civilian, the public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday.
Vadim Shishimarin He is accused of firing an automatic rifle from a vehicle window and killing a 62-year-old civilian to prevent him from testifying about the carjacking, according to the statement from the prosecutor’s office.
When his convoy came under fire in northern Ukraine on February 28, Shishimarin joined four other soldiers and stole a car outside the town of Chupakhivkathe statement said.
The victim was riding a bicycle nearby and “one of the soldiers ordered the accused to kill the civilian so that he could not report them,” according to the statement from the prosecutor’s office Iryna Venediktova.
“The man died at the scene just a few dozen meters from his house,” he added.
The soldier, in custody, faces a possible life sentence for war crimes and premeditated murder.
The prosecution published a pixelated photo of Shishimarin but did not detail how he was arrested or what happened to the rest of the soldiers in the group.
Ukraine and his allies from the NATO they have repeatedly accused Russian troops of committing war crimes in this invasion that began on February 24, which has caused the displacement of millions of civilians.
The United Kingdom, the Netherlands or France have sent investigators to help local teams and the International Criminal Court to investigate possible atrocities in this war.
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