A 21-year-old Russian soldier has been found guilty of war crimes for killing an unarmed civilian and was consequently handed a life sentence by a Ukrainian court yesterday, in the first verdict of its kind since the invasion began three months ago.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that the ruling came even as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned elites gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos that slow-walking military aid to Ukraine was costing thousands of lives, as he called for more weapons and even tougher sanctions against Moscow.
And as ferocious battles raged in eastern Ukraine, where Russia pummeled cities and towns in a bid to expand its hold on the Donbass region, a Russian diplomat in Geneva quit his post in protest over the war telling colleagues: ‘Never have I been so ashamed of my country.’
In a Kyiv courtroom, Russian serviceman Vadim Shishimarin looked on from a glass defence box as was sentenced in a trial followed around the world — likely the first of many as Ukraine investigates thousands of alleged war crimes.
The sergeant from Siberia had admitted to killing a 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov as he was riding his bike in the village of Chupakhivka in northeast Ukraine.
He claimed he shot Shelipov under pressure from another soldier as they tried to retreat and escape back into Russia in a stolen car on February 28.
Shishimarin apologised and asked Shelipov’s widow for forgiveness, adding: ‘I was nervous about what was going on. I didn’t want to kill.’
But prosecutors stated he shot between three and four bullets with the intention of killing the civilian, and Judge Sergiy Agafonov sentenced him to life.
The sergeant was also found guilty of premeditated murder, which Agafonov said had been committed with direct intent.
Shishimarin’s lawyer Viktor Ovsyannikov said he would appeal the “most severe” verdict, arguing that “societal pressure” weighed on the decision.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, from which Russians have been barred this year, Zelensky made a fresh appeal for Western support.
He revealed that 87 people had been killed in a Russian attack earlier this month on a military base in northern Ukraine, in what would be one of the largest single recorded strikes of the war.
Western countries have sent huge amounts of weapons and cash to Ukraine to help it repel Russia’s assault, and punished Moscow with unprecedented economic sanctions.
