Vadim Shysimarin, the first Russian soldier tried for war crimes in Ukraine

This Friday, the trial of Vadim Shysimarin, who has become the first Russian soldier to is going to be tried in the Ukraine for war crimes.

21-year-old Shysimarin was commander of the 4th Guards Kantemirovskaya Armored Division. Accused of murdering a 62-year-old civiliancan be sentenced.

“It’s here, we have it,” celebrated Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. The prosecution reports that Shysimarin fought in the Sumy region, in northeastern Ukraine. On February 28, he would have killed the civilian in the village of Chupakhivka, according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.

The account of the authorities states that the young man was traveling that day in a convoy of Russian military vehicles when he was attacked by Ukrainian forces. In the subsequent flight, he is accused of having shot an unarmed man who was on a bicycle looking for food while talking on the phone.

Also, the young man and four other Russian soldiers would have stolen a car on the outskirts of Chupakhivka. The soldier fired his AK-47 rifle because he was ordered to “kill a civilian so that he would not denounce the Ukrainian defenders.”

Thus, he is accused of having violated the laws of war and premeditated murder, and if he is convicted, he faces sentences of between ten and fifteen years in prison, as well as a life sentence.

At least 11,000 crimes have taken place in Ukraine, according to data recorded by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office. According to UNICEF, at least a hundred children have died in the country in the month of April alone.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergii Kislitsia, told the Security Council on Thursday that the situation at the Azovstal steel plant is critical and that Russian troops do not stop “attacking” it day and night with artillery and bombs.

“Every day and every night the Russian occupiers try to break the resistance of the Ukrainians in Azovstal. Every day and every night they drop heavy aerial bombs, bombard facilities with heavy artillery and multiple rocket launch systems. Russian infantry assault groups are attacking non-stop,” he said.