The first Russian soldier to face trial for warfare crimes in Ukraine pleaded responsible on Wednesday to capturing and killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, who was a part of a Russian tank unit captured by Ukrainian forces in early March, simply days after the warfare started, faces a potential sentence of life in jail.
Shishimarin appeared Wednesday at a district court docket in Kyiv. At a preliminary listening to final week, prosecutors mentioned Shishimarin had been driving in a non-public automobile with different troopers, which that they had stolen in an try to flee after their column got here beneath assault by Ukrainian forces a couple of days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 28.
They drove to the village of Chupakhivka, the place they stumbled on the sufferer, a 62-year-old man using a bicycle and speaking on his telephone.
Prosecutors mentioned Shishimarin was ordered to shoot the civilian to cease him from telling Ukrainian defenders concerning the Russians' location. They mentioned Shishimarin fired a number of photographs out of his open automobile window on the sufferer's head, killing him immediately.
Ukrainian officers say the capturing was captured on video by the nation's State Safety Service, however that video has not been seen by CBS Information.
"I used to be ordered to shoot," Shishimarin mentioned in a confession video proven final week by prosecutors, which appeared to have been edited by Ukrainian authorities. "I shot one (spherical) at him. He falls. And we saved on going."
Ukraine's Nationwide Safety Service referred to as Shishimarin's video assertion "one of many first confessions of the enemy invaders."
Ukraine, together with the U.S. and others within the worldwide group, has accused Russia of committing atrocities towards civilians throughout its warfare on Ukraine, and says it has recognized over 10,000 potential warfare crimes.
Russia has denied focusing on civilians and accused Ukraine of staging atrocities.