Russian soldier wants forgiveness

A 21-YEAR-OLD Russian soldier asked a Ukrainian widow to forgive him for the murder of her husband, as a court in Kyiv met for a second hearing yesterday in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia’s invasion.

Vadim Shishimarin, a tank commander, pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov, in the north-east Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka.

“I acknowledge my blame ... I ask you to forgive me,” he told the widow, Kateryna Shelipova, yesterday.

The Kremlin has said it has no information about the trial and that the absence of a diplomatic mission in Ukraine limits its ability to provide legal assistance.

The widow told the court she had heard distant shots fired from their yard and she had called out to her husband the day he was killed.

“I ran over to my husband, he was already dead. Shot in the head. I screamed,” she said.

Shelipova told the court she would not object if Shishimarin was released to Russia as part of a prisoner swop to get “our boys” out of the port city of Mariupol, a reference to hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who have given

themselves up to Russia. Shishimarin is accused of firing several shots with an assault rifle at a civilian’s head from a car after being ordered to do so.

Asked if he had been obliged to follow an order that amounted to a war crime, Shishimarin said “no”. “I fired a short burst, three or four bullets,” he told the court. “I am from Irkutsk Oblast (a region in Siberia), I have two brothers and two sisters ... I am the eldest,” he said. Shishimarin could face up to life imprisonment if convicted.

Russia’s siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol stuttered towards its end yesterday, with hundreds of fighters still holed up in the catacombs of the Azovstal steel works and some 1 700 who have already surrendered facing an uncertain fate. It was unclear how

many fighters remained inside.

Russia’s defence ministry said 771 fighters from the Azov Regiment, vilified by Russia, had surrendered in the past day, bringing the total of those who had given themselves up since Monday to 1730. Ukrainian officials declined to comment.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, which now encompasses Mariupol, said more than half the Ukrainian fighters had surrendered, and the uninjured had been taken to a penal colony at Olenivka.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday that the invasion threatens to bring famine “in a crisis that could last for years”.