Russian soldier sentenced to life imprisonment in Ukraine’s first war crimes trial since invasion

A Ukrainian court has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial after the invasion of Moscow.

Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old tank commander, pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in the village of Chupachivka after he was ordered to shoot him.

Last week, Shishimarin told the court he didn’t want to kill but would accept his fate.

He told the court that an official had insisted that the Ukrainian, who was on his mobile phone, could pinpoint their whereabouts to Ukrainian forces. During the trial, Shishimarin asked the victim’s widow to forgive him. Shishimarin’s defense attorney, Victor Ovsyanikov, argued that his client, a member of a Russian armored unit who was eventually captured, was unprepared for the “violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops faced when they first invaded Ukraine.