The first Russian dogface on trial in Ukraine for war crimes during Moscow’s irruption contended shamefaced moment, facing possible life imprisonment in Kyiv.
Asked in court if he was shamefaced of the allegations, including war crimes and premeditated murder, 21- time-old sergeant Vadim Shishimarin responded “ yes”.
He’s indicted for killing a 62- time-old servicewoman in northeast Ukraine in the first days of the Kremlin’s descent.
Shishimarin — from the Siberian region of Irkutsk — sat in the glass defendant’s box in a Kyiv quarter court, wearing a blue and slate hoodie.
The immature-looking dogface with a shaved head looked towards the ground as a prosecutor read out charges against him in Ukrainian.
A practitioner was rephrasing for him into Russian.
He’s indicted for killing the mercenary — allegedly on a bike — near the vill of Chupakhivka in the eastern Sumy region on February 28.
Prosecutors say Shishimarin was commanding a unit in a tank division when his convoy came under attack.
He and four other dogfaces stole an auto, and as they travelled near Chupakhivka they encountered a 62- time-old man on a bike, they said.
According to prosecutors, Shishimarin was ordered to kill the mercenary and used a Kalashnikov assault rifle to do so.
The Kremlin before said it wasn’t informed about the case.
Russian forces stand indicted for committing war crimes during a conflict that has left thousands dead and forced millions to flee their homes.
These include the summary payoff of civilians in places like Bucha, a small city outside of Kyiv, where AFP journalists witnessed bodies abandoned in the thoroughfares by retreating Russian raiders.
The International Criminal Court said on Tuesday it was planting its largest-ever field platoon in Ukraine, with 42 investigators, forensic experts and support staff being transferred into the field to gather substantiation of contended crimes.
And the US State Department also blazoned it was creating a special unit to explore, document and publicise Russian war crimes.
The Conflict Overlook will “ capture, assay, and make extensively available substantiation of Russia- executed war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” the department said.
Hundreds of Ukrainians rendition’
Meanwhile, hundreds of Ukrainian dogfaces who held off Russian fighters at the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have surrendered, Moscow said, as Kyiv called for an immediate internee exchange.
The strategic harborage megacity fell to Russian forces last month, but a grim Ukrainian military unit held out in the maze of coverts under the factory, hailed as icons and celebrated for stalling Moscow’s irruption.
On Tuesday, 265 of them were taken into Russian prison, including 51 who were heavily wounded, the Russian defence ministry said.
The ministry, which published images showing dogfaces on stretchers, said the injured were transported to a sanitarium in the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Kremlin revolutionists.
The defence ministry in Kyiv said it was hoping for an “ exchange procedure. to repudiate these Ukrainian icons as snappily as possible”.
The government would do “ everything necessary” to deliver the undisclosed number of help still drilled up in the Soviet-period cellarages, the ministry said but admitted there was no military option available.
The fate of the captured Ukrainians was unclear Tuesday, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refusing to say whether they would be treated as culprits or captures of war.
President Vladimir Putin “ guaranteed that they would be treated according to the applicable transnational laws,” Peskov said.
Trust between the two sides is in short force, with Kyiv saying accommodations on ending the three-month conflict were on hold, condemning Moscow for a turndown to compromise.
