Ukraine: 21-year-old Russian soldier found guilty of war crimes

The first trial of a Russian soldier accused of war crimes after the invasion of Ukrainian territory by Moscow troops began today in Kyiv and the soldier accused of killing a civilian pleaded guilty.

“The hearing has begun,” the judge said after arriving in the early hours of the morning in the courtroom of 21-year-old Vadim Sisimarin, who faces up to life in prison for war crimes and premeditated murder.

This sergeant from Irkutsk, in Siberia, answered “yes” to the judge who asked him if he admitted the facts “without reservations”, and pleaded guilty.

He is accused of killing a 62-year-old civilian on February 28 in northeastern Ukraine.

Wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt with a shaved head, the chubby non-commissioned officer was alone in the glass-enclosed partition, with his interpreter leaning toward him in a small courtroom in the Solomyansky district court. Kyiv.

According to the indictment, Sergeant Vadim Sisimarin was commanding a small unit of an armored division when their phalanx was attacked. He, along with four other soldiers, then stole a car.

While traveling near the village of Tsupahivka, in the province of Sumi (northeast), they met a 62-year-old man who was pushing his bicycle while talking on his mobile phone.

“One of the soldiers ordered the accused to kill the civilian so as not to denounce them,” according to Ukrainian justice, who clarified that the man was “killed on the spot” a few tens of meters from his residence.

In early May, Ukrainian authorities announced his arrest without giving details, releasing a video in which Vadim Sisimarin said he had come to fight in Ukraine to “help his mother financially”.

Source: Capital

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