Next articles
War in Ukraine
Democracy Dies in Darkness

Ukraine announces first war crimes trial of Russian soldier in custody

By
, 
and 
Updated May 11, 2022 at 3:05 p.m. EDT|Published May 11, 2022 at 10:14 a.m. EDT
A woman mourns by her son's grave at a cemetery in Bucha, Ukraine, last month. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)
7 min

Ukraine’s prosecutor general said Wednesday that the country would try a 21-year-old Russian soldier who is in custody, adding that he would be the first Russian service member to stand trial there on a war crimes charge in the 11-week conflict.

The prosecutor’s statement accused Vadim Shishimarin of firing several shots with a Kalashnikov rifle from a car, killing an unarmed 62-year-old resident in a village in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Feb. 28. It said the man was pushing a bike by the side of a road before he was shot in the head and “died on the spot a few dozen meters from his home.”