Vadim Chichimarine, a 21-year-old Russian sergeant, is convicted of a war crime. He murdered a Ukrainian civilian in the early days of the invasion.
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The first Russian soldier sentenced for war crimes in Ukraine will not ultimately receive a life sentence, but fifteen years in prison. His sentence is reduced on appeal, a kyiv court announced on Friday July 29. “The appeal filed by the defense has been partially satisfied”said the Kyiv Court of Appeal in a statement.
Sergeant Vadim Chichimarine, 21, admitted to shooting dead Oleksandre Chelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, in the northeast of the country. This assassination took place on February 28, shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army launched on February 24. Pleading guilty, he was sentenced Thursday, May 23 for war crimes and premeditated murder.
Vadim Chichimarine, originally from Irkutsk in Siberia, had “request forgiveness” to the victim’s widow during a brief exchange with her in the courtroom in Kyiv in May. Lhe military told the court that he acted under pressure from another soldier when he tried to flee to Russia in a stolen car with four other soldiers.
The Russian forces are accused of war crimes and abuses by the Ukrainian authorities, in particular during their occupation of the surroundings of the capital from which they withdrew at the end of March. They have also been accused by kyiv of arbitrary detention and torture in the territories they occupy in southern Ukraine.