He is 21 years old and his trial has symbolic value. Accused of a war crime which he admitted to having committed four days after the start of the Russian invasion, Vadim Chichimarine becomes the first face of this Ukrainian justice which is set in motion. The eyes of lawyers in much of the world are on this trial – and those to come, which they hope will be transparent and without blunders.
Posted yesterday at 10:45 p.m.
What you need to know today
- A first Russian soldier had to face Ukrainian justice on Wednesday. Tried for war crimes during a hearing before the Kyiv court, Vadim Chichimarine, a 21-year-old non-commissioned officer, confessed to shooting a 62-year-old civilian on February 28 in northeastern Ukraine.
- Moscow announces the surrender of some 265 Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the Azovstal factory in Mariupol, the Ukrainian president rather evoking evacuations. The number of people still trapped inside remains unknown.
- Russia announced the expulsion of 34 French, 24 Italian and 27 Spanish diplomats, in retaliation for those of Russian diplomats shortly after the start of the offensive in Ukraine.
- The ambassadors of Sweden and Finland presented their candidacy documents to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who hailed “a historic moment at a critical time for our security”. Turkey continues to be opposed to their integration and discussions are underway to try to rally Ankara.
Originally from Irkutsk, Siberia, Mr. Chichimarine, who faces life imprisonment, is described as having been on February 28 at the head of a small unit within a tank division when his convoy was attacked. When they had just stolen a car near the village of Choupakhivka, in the Sumy region, in the northeast of the country, he and four of his comrades came across an unidentified 62-year-old man who was pushing his bicycle while on the phone .
PHOTO EDGAR SU, REUTERS
Prosecutor Andviy Syniuk speaks to the media after a hearing in the trial of Russian soldier Vadim Chichimarine, in Kyiv.
At the office of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, it is believed that one of the soldiers then ordered the accused to kill the civilian “so that he would not denounce them”.
The victim would have died instantly.
Does he “unreservedly” admit the charges of war crimes and premeditated murder? To this question, Vadim Chichimarine, who appeared handcuffed, his head shaved and dressed in sportswear, answered “yes”.
His arrest dates back to early May. The Ukrainian authorities then published a video in which Vadim Chichimarine said he had come to fight in Ukraine to “financially support his mother”.
At the beginning of April, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky announced the establishment of a “special mechanism” intended to “investigate all the crimes of the occupiers in [le] country and prosecute them”.
In The Hague, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, also announced on Wednesday the deployment in Ukraine of a team of 42 investigators and experts. It is the largest manpower mission ever sent to the field, to shed light on the crimes committed during the Russian invasion.
The primary responsibility of national justice
Fannie Lafontaine, professor at Université Laval and holder of the Canada Research Chair in International Criminal Justice and Fundamental Rights, notes that “primary responsibility for judging war crimes lies with Ukraine. The International Criminal Court is there as a complement to national justice. It will take charge of the cases of the highest officials, as well as the cases that Ukraine cannot take in hand for lack of means or for fear of partiality”.
Vadim Chichimarine was a low-ranking soldier, she adds, so “the International Criminal Court would never have taken this kind of case anyway”.
Mme Lafontaine is hopeful that justice will be done transparently and fairly and that if it ever turns into a show trial, voices will be raised. She also points out that the conditions of detention of the defendants will be scrutinized, among others by Red Cross personnel.
According to her, the real risk is rather linked – a little like the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti – “to the massive influx of international aid, in this case in terms of justice” and with what this implies in terms of challenges in matters of coordination. “Several commissions of inquiry have been set in motion, many countries have opened investigations, the United States has just launched an observatory on the conflict, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is collecting evidence itself…”, explains the teacher.
All these experts will have to coordinate so that justice is rendered for the Ukrainian victims of war crimes, but also for the Russians who have been or will be.
It is quite possible that Ukrainians are also committing war crimes. In armed conflicts, this is almost inevitable.
Fannie Lafontaine, professor at Université Laval and holder of the Canada Research Chair in International Criminal Justice and Fundamental Rights
But a priori, she says, “there is more willingness on the part of Ukrainians than Russians” to comply with the rules of law in force during armed conflicts.
Miriam Cohen, associate professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal and holder of a Canada research chair, notes that “it was only a matter of time” before this first trial was held in Ukraine. . We had to collect the evidence, succeed in arresting the soldier on Ukrainian soil. The Ukrainian authorities have made it clear, she adds: this is only the first in a series of trials.
Mme Cohen recalls that this trial will be highly publicized, that we are far from the clandestine trial and that Ukraine has every interest in demonstrating that it is acting in full respect of the law.
With Agence France-Presse