Russian soldier pleads guilty in first war crimes trial since invasion

Lviv, May 18 (EFE).- Vadim Shysimarin, the first Russian soldier to be tried in Ukraine for war crimes, pleaded guilty to killing a civilian in a Kyiv court on Wednesday.

Shysimarin, 21, pleaded guilty to killing the Ukrainian civilian in the Sumy region of northern Ukraine on February 28, four days after the Russian invasion began, the Kyiv Independent reported.

According to the prosecutor’s investigation, on February 28 Shysimarin, 21, killed an unarmed man riding a bicycle in Chupajivka.

The column of tanks which the commander was a member of had disbanded after an attack by the Ukrainian army, with the accused, in the company of four other soldiers, fleeing in a civilian vehicle they had allegedly seized.

Arriving in Chupajivka, they came across the victim who was talking on the phone, and Shysimarin allegedly shot him in the head with a machine gun to prevent him from informing Ukrainian troops of their position.

The commander was later captured by Kyiv forces, and on May 4 the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released a video in which he confessed to shooting a civilian.

Shysimarin faces 10 to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment if convicted of violating the laws of war and of premeditated murder. EFE

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