The lawyer for a Russian soldier who was the first to go on trial for an alleged war crime in Ukraine asked a Kyiv court Friday …
The lawyer for a Russian soldier who was the first to go on trial for an alleged war crime in Ukraine asked a Kyiv court Friday to acquit his client, who had admitted killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian during the first days of the war. Defense attorney Victor Ovsyanikov argued that his client, Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, had been unprepared for the “violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops encountered when they first invaded Ukraine.
“It is essential, your honor, in my opinion, to assess Shishimarin’s intentions as to what happened and the reasons he was guided by when he fired,” Ovsyanikov said. “Could any of the people present here understand these circumstances in that situation?”
Shishimarin, a member of a Russian tank unit who was eventually captured, testified Thursday that he shot the civilian from an open car window on orders from two officers. He said one of the officers insisted the man, 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov, could report their location in the northeastern Sumy region to Ukrainian forces.
“Let’s try to put ourselves in the place of at least one of those people in that car, and in general,” Ovsyanikov, a Ukrainian lawyer who was appointed to defend the Russian sargeant, said Friday.
