The 21-year-old soldier admitted to having shot down a 62-year-old civilian in the northeast of the country during the first days of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. He was found guilty of war crime and murder with premeditation.
Le Monde with AFP
The first Russian soldier judged for war crime since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Vadim Chichimarine, was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, May 23, in kyiv, for the murder of ‘a civilian. His lawyer immediately announced that he would appeal.
“The court decided to recognize [Vadim] guilty Chichimarine and to condemn him to life imprisonment,” said Serhi Agafonov. The 21-year-old Chichimarine Sergeant, admitted to having shot Oleksandr Chelipov, a 62-year-old civilian, in the northeast of the country during the first days of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. He is found guilty of war and murder crime.
The soldier with a juvenile face and shaved skull, dressed in a gray and blue hooded sweatshirt, listened, alone in a glass box, the verdict read in Ukrainian while an interpreter translated him into him as Russian. “The murder was committed with direct intention,” said the judge. “[Vadim] Chichimarine violated the laws and customs of war,” he continued.
The cancellation of the verdict requested
The prosecution had requested the maximum sentence on Thursday, namely life prison. The soldier had pleaded guilty the day before. He said he had acted under pressure from another soldier when he was trying to flee to Russia aboard a stolen car with four other soldiers. This soldier, from Irkoutsk, in Siberia, also “asked for forgiveness” at the widow of Mr. Chelipov during a brief exchange with her in the room of a court of kyiv.
“It is the most severe condemnation and any sensible person would appeal,” said the young man’s lawyer Viktor Ovsiannikov. “I will ask for the cancellation of the verdict,” he said.
Before the hearing, the Kremlin had declared himself “worried” for the fate of the Russian citizen, adding that he could not assist him on the spot because of the absence of diplomatic representation. “This does not mean that we are not going to try by other channels. The fate of each Russian citizen is of paramount importance,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.