The justice in the Ukraine today begins the first trial for a war crime since Russia's invasion[/B] of the country against a Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed civilian.
The trial, which is expected to be followed by many others, will be a test for the Ukrainian judicial system while international institutions conduct their own investigations into atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine.
Vadim Sisymarin, 21,[/B] will appear before a court in the Solomyansky district of Kiev today at 14:00 (local time and Greece time) where he will have to explain the death of a 62-year-old man on 28 February in northeastern Ukraine.
Sisymarin, originally from Irkutsk, Siberia, charged with war crimes and manslaughter with intent, faces a life sentence.
"He understands the charges against him," said Viktor Ovsyanikov, the soldier's lawyer. According to Ukrainian authorities, he is cooperating with Ukrainian authorities and has admitted the incident.
According to the indictment, Sisymarin was leading a unit of an armored division when their convoy was attacked. Along with four soldiers, he stole a car to escape. They were near the village of Chupahifka in Sumi province when they met the 62-year-old on a bicycle.
"One of the soldiers ordered the accused to kill the civilian in order not to report them" for stealing the car, the prosecutor general's office said.
[BR][BR]Sisymarin then fired his Kalashnikov through the window of the car and "the man was killed on the spot, a few dozen meters from his house."
"Clear message"
In early May, Ukrainian authorities had announced the arrest of the Russian soldier, without releasing any other details. But they released a video in which Sisymarin appears to say he went to fight in Ukraine "to help his mother financially."
Commenting on the charges against him, he said: "I received orders to shoot and I shot him twice. He fell down and we continued on our way."
The case is difficult, his lawyer commented. "We have never had such a charge in Ukraine before, there are no precedents, no decision," he stressed.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General, Irina Venediktova, in a series of posts on Twitter underlined how important this case is for her country.
"We have launched more than 11,000 war crimes investigations and have arrested 40 suspects," she noted. "With this first trial we are sending a clear message: no executioner, no person who ordered or helped commit crimes in Ukraine will escape justice."
Already tomorrow the trial of two Russian soldiers for firing rockets at civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region begins.
Source: Cyprus Times
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