The Kyiv Prosecutor announced, on Wednesday, that a 21-year-old Russian soldier will be tried for war crimes in Ukraine, and the first trial for this charge will be in the country invaded by Russia on February 24.
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In a statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office Irina Venediktova said that Vadim Shishimarin is accused of shooting a Kalashnikov from the window of a car in which he was traveling, killing a 62-year-old unarmed civilian, indicating that he acted to prevent the explosion. A man who testified in a car theft case.
The statement continued that the accused soldier was traveling with four other Russian soldiers after their convoy was attacked on February 28 and they stole a car near the village of Chubakhivka, explaining that the civilian – who was not identified – was riding a bicycle. On the side of the road not far from his home when the robbery happened.
Al-Adl pointed out that “one of the soldiers ordered the accused to kill a civilian so that he would not condemn them.” “The man died instantly, tens of meters from his house.”
Vadim Shishimarin, who is arrested, faces life imprisonment if convicted of war crimes and premeditated murder.
The prosecution published a picture of the accused, but it did not indicate the circumstances that led to his arrest or what happened to the other soldiers present at the time of the alleged events.
Russia has repeatedly been accused by Kyiv and Washington of committing war crimes in Ukraine since the start of its offensive, which has displaced nearly six million civilians internally and externally, and who, for many, tell of torture, sexual and indiscriminate abuse. destruction.
The United Kingdom and the Netherlands have sent specialist war crimes investigators to help International and Domestic Criminal Court teams search for possible mass crimes, including in the town of Bucha near Kyiv where at least two dozen bodies were discovered on April 2.
