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The first trial of a Russian soldier charged with war crimes for killing a Ukrainian civilian during the Russian occupation has opened in Kiev.
Dozens of journalists were ushered into a small courtroom in the Ukrainian capital, where the suspect appeared inside a glass-shared room to launch a trial that has drawn international attention amid repeated allegations of atrocities by Russian forces.
Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is charged with the murder of a 62-year-old civilian who was riding a bicycle in the village of Cupakivka in the northeastern Sumy region, a crime for which he could be sentenced to life in prison.
The assassination came just days after Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine.
Shishimarin, a member of a tank unit captured by Ukrainian forces, admitted to shooting the cyclist in a video posted by the Ukrainian Security Service.
“I was ordered to shoot,” Shishimari said of the February 28 killing.
“I fired a (bullet) at him. Ai ra. “And we moved on.”
Shishimarin’s video statement is “one of the first confessions of the invaders”, according to the Ukrainian security service.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova last month identified 10 soldiers of the 64th Infantry Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, saying they were suspected of “cruelty to civilians and other war crimes,” adding that Ukrainian investigators continue to gather evidence and those mentioned were only the first.
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