| First Thing: The first war crimes trial in Ukraine begins |
| (info@editorial.theguardian.com) |
| Vadim Shysimarin, a 21-year-old Russian commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, is charged with murdering a 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian |
| May 13, 2022 |
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| Vivian Ho |
| For the first time since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, a court in Kyiv will hear a war crime trial of a Russian soldier accused of murdering a 62-year-old civilian.Vadim Shysimarin, 21-year-old commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, is accused of fatally shooting the unarmed man after being ordered “to kill a civilian so he would not report them to Ukrainian defenders”, according to prosecutors. Shysimarin, who is now in custody, is also accused of shooting at a civilian car after his convoy of military vehicles had come under attack from Ukrainian forces. He then drove the car away with four other soldiers as he sought to flee Ukrainian fighters. Two other cases are likely to be heard in court within days, including an in absentia trial of Mikhail Romanov who is accused of breaking into a house in the Brovarsky region near Kyiv, murdering a man and then repeatedly raping his wife in front of her underage child. |
