A 21-year-old Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since Moscow invaded Ukraine has pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian.
Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin could face life imprisonment for shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in the northeastern Sumy region in the early days of the invasion.
Shishimarin, a captured member of a Russian tank unit, was prosecuted under a section of the Ukrainian criminal code that addresses the laws and customs of war.
Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova previously said her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offences that included bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting.
It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects are in Ukrainian hands and how many would be tried in absentia. As the inaugural war-crimes case in Ukraine, Shishimarin’s prosecution was being watched closely.
Investigators have been collecting evidence of possible war crimes to bring before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
