Trial in Ukraine – soldier against widow: “I beg your forgiveness”

“I know you can’t forgive me, but I still ask for forgiveness,” Shishimarin said during the second session of the Kiev court on Thursday.

pleaded guilty
The 21-year-old tank commander pleaded guilty Wednesday to the killing of unarmed 62-year-old civilian Oleksandr Shelipov on February 28 in the northeastern Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka. “I fired a short shot, three or four bullets,” he said in court.

No information about process
Dressed in a tracksuit and with his head bowed, Shishimarin offered a disconsolate face to the accused. He spoke calmly, but seemed scared. According to the Kremlin, the 21-year-old has no information about the trial and the lack of a diplomatic mission in Ukraine limits his ability to provide legal assistance.

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Shishimarin to life imprisonment. The widow told the court she heard gunshots from afar in her yard. She called her husband on the day of the murder.

The wife of the murdered Shalipova told the court she wouldn’t mind if Shishimarin was released to Russia as part of a prisoner swap to get “our boys” out of the port city of Mariupol, a reference to hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered To Russia.

The woman also added that her husband was unarmed and wearing civilian clothes. She has a 27-year-old son and two grandchildren.

Third soldier would have given the order
Another captured Russian soldier, Ivan Matysov, 20, who was in the car, told the court that the third unidentified soldier in the vehicle yelled at Shishimarin “in an imperative tone” to shoot the civilian.

Both soldiers – Matysov and Shishimarin – said the third man was not a senior officer, suggesting that Shishimarin was under no obligation to obey the order to fire.