kyiv tries Russian soldier for war crimes in Ukraine

The trial of a 21-year-old Russian soldier for the murder of an unarmed Ukrainian civilian began in kyiv on Friday, the first war crimes trial against a member of the Russian military after 11 weeks of bloodshed in Ukraine.

The soldier is accused of shooting a 62-year-old man in the head through the open window of a car in the town of Chupakhivka, in the northeast of the country. He is a member of a tank unit and was captured.

A large number of journalists and cameramen packed the interior of the small court in the Solomyanskyy district court in the Ukrainian capital, where the suspect, Sgt. Vadim Shyshimarin, was sitting in an area surrounded by glass. He was wearing sweatpants and a blue and gray hoodie, and he had a shaved head.

He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, under a section of the Ukrainian penal code that deals with the laws and customs of war. Ukraine’s chief prosecutor, with the help of foreign experts, is investigating allegations that Russian troops broke Ukrainian and international law by killing, torturing and possibly abusing thousands of Ukrainian civilians.

The hearing on Friday in Shyshimarin’s case was brief. A judge asked her to say his name, address, marital status and other identifying details. They also asked him if he understood her rights, to which he answered “yes” in a low voice, and if she wanted a jury trial, which she declined.

The judges and lawyers discussed procedural matters before the judges left the courtroom, then returned to indicate that the case would continue on May 18.

Shyshimarin’s lawyer, Victor Ovsyanikov, acknowledged the case against him is strong, but said the court would make the final decision on what evidence to allow. Ovsyanikov said Thursday that he and his client had not yet decided whether he would plead not guilty or guilty.

After Friday’s hearing, Ovsyannikov said he was assigned to defend Shyshimarin in his role as a lawyer for the Free Legal Aid Center. His client “certainly knows all the details” of what he is accused of, Ovsyannikov said. The lawyer did not detail what his defense strategy will be.

As the first war crimes case in Ukraine, Shyshimarin’s trial is being closely watched. The investigators have been gathering evidence of possible crimes of this type to present them before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The attorney general’s office said prosecutor Iryna Venediktova has said she is studying more than 10,700 possible war crimes involving more than 600 suspects, including Russian soldiers and government officials.

Many of the alleged atrocities came to light last month after Moscow troops ended their attempt to take kyiv and withdrew from the outskirts of the capital, exposing mass graves, streets and gardens littered with of bodies in various locations, including Bucha.

Volodymyr Yavorskyi, coordinator of the Center for Civil Liberties in kyiv, said that the activists will follow the trial of the Russian soldier to ensure that his legal rights are respected. It can be difficult, he commented, to maintain the neutrality of the judicial process in time of war.

“It is amazing that a war crimes suspect has been found and is being prosecuted. Charges of this type are usually made in absentia.”he pointed. “It is an unusual case in which in a short time we managed to find a soldier who broke the international rules of war.”