May 2022 — M2CC Newsletter

WWW.M2CC.US Monthly Newsletter | 17
Prosecutors plan to continue presenting evidence against Shishimarin
following his guilty plea, although the trial is like to be shorter.
As the inaugural war-crimes case in Ukraine, Shishimarin’s prosecution
was being watched closely. Investigators have been collecting evidence of
possible war crimes to bring before the International Criminal Court in The
Hague.
Venediktova’s office has said it was looking into more than 10,700 potential
war crimes involving more than 600 suspects, including Russian soldiers
and government officials.
With help from foreign experts, prosecutors are investigating allegations
that Russian troops violated Ukrainian and international law by killing,
torturing and abusing possibly thousands of Ukrainian civilians.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A 21-year-old Russian soldier facing the first war crimes
trial since Moscow invaded Ukraine pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing an
unarmed civilian.
Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin could get life in prison for shooting a a 62-year-old
Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in the northeastern
Sumy region on Feb. 28, four days into the invasion.
Shishimarin, a captured member of a Russian tank unit, was prosecuted
under a section of the Ukrainian criminal code that addresses the laws and
customs of war.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova previously said her office
was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offenses that
included bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting.
It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects are in Ukrainian
hands and how many would be tried in absentia.
Shishimarin's trial opened Friday, when he made a brief court appearance
while lawyers and judges discussed prosecedural matters. After his plea on
Wednesday, the proceedings were continued until Thursday, when the trial
is expecgted to resume in a large courtroom to accomodate more journalists.
Ukrainian authorities posted a few details on social media last week from
their investigation in his case.
Shishimarin was among a group of Russian troops that fled Ukrainian
forces on Feb. 28, according to Venediktova’s Facebook account. The
Russians allegedly fired at a private car and seized the vehicle, then drove to
Chupakhivka, a village about 200 miles east of Kyiv.
On the way, the prosecutor-general alleged, the Russian soldiers saw a man
walking on the sidewalk and talking on his phone. Shyshimarin was ordered
to kill the man so he wouldn’t be able to report them to Ukrainian military
authorities. Venediktova did not identify who gave the order.
Shyshimarin fired his Kalashnikov rifle through the open window and hit
the victim in the head, Venediktova wrote.
“The man died on the spot just a few dozen meters from his house,” she said.
The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, posted a short video
on May 4 of Shyshimarin speaking in front of camera and briefly describing
how he shot the man. The SBU described the video as “one of the first
confessions of the enemy invaders.”
“I was ordered to shoot,” Shyshimarin said. “I shot one (round) at him. He
falls. And we kept on going.”
Russia is believed to be preparing war crime trials for Ukrainian soldiers.