Admitting Guilty Of Shooting Ukrainian Civilians: Commander Of Russian Tank Unit Sentenced To Life, Apologizes To Family

Illustration of the corpses of Ukrainian civilians who were victims of the Russian invasion. (Wikimedia Commons/npu.gov.ua/National Police of Ukraine)

JAKARTA - Ukrainian prosecutors asked a court on Thursday to sentence a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial, related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old commander of a Russian tank unit, asks widow Kateryna Shelipova to forgive him for the murder of her husband, Oleksandr, in the village of Chupakhivka, northeastern Ukraine on February 28.

"I admit my mistake. I ask you to forgive me," he told Shelipova at a hearing on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday.

The assassination of Oleksandr Shelipov is one of what Ukraine and Western countries say is a much broader picture. Ukraine accuses Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians during its invasion, saying it has identified more than 10.000 possible war crimes. Russia denies targeting civilians or engaging in war crimes.

Meanwhile, Oleksandr's widow told the court the day her husband was killed she heard gunfire from far from their yard and that she had called her husband.

"I ran to my husband, he was dead. Shot in the head. I screamed, I screamed as loud as I could," she said. He looked desperate and his voice trembled with emotion.

Shelipova said her husband was unarmed and wearing civilian clothes. They have a 27-year-old son and two grandchildren together, she added.

Illustration of a convoy of Russian tanks. (Source: Russian Ministry of Defense/Evgeny Polovodov/Dmitry Gutov)

The trial takes place as large parts of Ukraine are gripped by the fate of its soldiers that Russia hopes will turn over as part of the swap. In Russia, several senior lawmakers have called for fighters of the Azov Regiment to be brought to justice.

Shelipova told the court she would not object if Shishimarin was released to Russia as part of a prisoner swap to get 'our children' out of the port city of Mariupol, a reference to the hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who have surrendered themselves to Russia.

Ukraine's state prosecutor said Shishimarin fired multiple shots with an assault rifle into the head of a civilian from a car after being ordered to do so. Read more

Asked if he was obliged to follow orders which amounted to a war crime, Shishimarin replied "no".

"I fired a short burst, three or four bullets," he told the court.

"I am from Irkutsk Oblast (a region in Siberia), I have two brothers and two sisters, I am the eldest," he continued.

Separately, the Kremlin said it had no information about the trial and that the absence of a diplomatic mission in Ukraine limited its ability to provide assistance.

"As before, there is no information (about the trial) and (Russia's) ability to provide assistance is also limited due to the absence of our diplomatic mission," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Asked more broadly about allegations of war crimes against Russian troops in Ukraine, Peskov said: "We consider it impossible and unacceptable to discard such a term. Many of the cases that Ukraine talks about are fake, and the most horribly staged, as has been proven convincingly by our experts."