The first Russian soldier to be tried for an organized war crime in Ukraine “asked for forgiveness” from the widow of the Ukrainian civilian he killed on Thursday, in a poignant exchange in a court in kyiv.
On the second day of this trial, Sergeant Vadim Chichimarine, 21, found himself face to face with the widow of Oleksandr Chelipov, a 62-year-old civilian whom he admits to having shot dead on February 28 in the northeast of Ukraine. “Do you have remorse for the crime you committed? asked Katerina Chelipova in a clear voice. “I know you won’t be able to forgive me, but I still ask for your forgiveness,” he replied.
“But why did you come here? To free us from what? What had my husband done to you? “Reacted the little woman with short hair. The young man, who faces life imprisonment, took shelter behind the “orders” received and the exchange did not go further.
“He told me in a firm tone to shoot, that if I didn’t, we would be in danger”
Previously, he had returned to the circumstances of the tragedy, which occurred only four days after the start of the Russian offensive in the Sumy region. The column of armor he was in had been attacked, and together with several soldiers he had stolen a car so as not to be captured. “We wanted to go back to where our army was positioned, in Russia,” he explained. “As we were driving, we saw a man talking on the phone. He said he was going to report us. »
According to him, one of the other soldiers, whom he did not know, asked him to shoot. “He told me in a firm tone to shoot, that if I didn’t, we would be in danger,” he said, admitting however that this man was not his superior. “I fired at close range and it killed him. »
The General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, on its website, said it had already opened more than 12,000 war crimes investigations, while international institutions are carrying out their own investigations into the abuses committed since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24. . In addition to Vadim Chichimarine, two other Russian soldiers are on trial from Thursday by a Ukrainian court for launching rockets at civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region.