A first verdict for war crimes in Ukraine. Almost three months after Moscow invaded the country, the first Russian soldier tried for war crimes, Vadim Chichimarine, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in kyiv (Ukraine), Monday, May 23. He was on trial for killing a sixty-year-old Ukrainian civilian on February 28 in the northeast of the country.
Sergeant Chichimarine, 21, had admitted shooting dead Oleksandre Chelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, as he was pushing his bicycle near the village of Chupakhivka (Ukraine). The military is found guilty of war crimes and premeditated murder.
The soldier with a youthful face and a shaved head, dressed in a gray and blue hooded sweatshirt, listened, alone in a glass box, to the verdict read in Ukrainian while an interpreter translated it into Russian. “The murder was committed with direct intent”said the judge. “Chichimarine violated the laws and customs of war.”
His lawyer will appeal
The prosecution had requested Thursday the maximum sentence, life imprisonment. The soldier had pleaded guilty the day before. vadim Chichimarine had declared having acted under the pressure of another soldier, while trying to flee to Russia in a stolen car with four other soldiers. This soldier, originally from Irkutsk in Siberia, had “request forgiveness” to the widow of Oleksandr Chelipov during a brief exchange with her in a courtroom in kyiv.
“It is the most severe sentence and any sane person would appeal”said the young man’s lawyer, Viktor Ovsiannikov. “I will ask for the reversal of the verdict”, did he declare. Before the hearing, the Kremlin declared itself “worried” for the fate of the Russian citizen, adding that he could not assist him on the spot due to the absence of diplomatic representation.
