Trial of Vadim Shishimarin
Vadim Yevgenyevich Shishimarin (Russian: Вадим Евгеньевич Шишимарин; born 17 October 2000) is a Russian soldier who was the first person to go on trial for war crimes committed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4] On 18 May 2022, he pleaded guilty to fatally shooting an unarmed civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov.[5] On 23 May, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.[1] Shishimarin's lawyer lodged an appeal and on 29 July 2022, his sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison.[6][3] Law professor Chris Jenks suggested that the legal reasoning, conviction and sentencing appeared to be flawed.[7]
In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Yevgenievich and the family name is Shishimarin.Background[edit]
Shishimarin was born in the Russian city of Ust-Ilimsk in Irkutsk Oblast.[8] He was a sergeant and squad leader in the 13th Guards Tank Regiment of the Russian Army's 4th Guards Tank Division.[9][10]
On 28 February 2022, while retreating to join other Russian units, his group of five soldiers hijacked a private vehicle and drove to Chupakhivka, Sumy Oblast, about 200 miles east of Kyiv. On the way, they saw Oleksandr Shelipov, a 62-year-old Ukrainian man, former bodyguard of Leonid Brezhnev,[11] who was riding a bicycle and talking on the phone.[8][12] Warrant Officer Makeev, who outranked Shishimarin, ordered the sergeant to shoot the man. He refused, but another soldier named Kufakov repeated the command.[7] Shishimarin fired three to four rounds from a Kalashnikov assault rifle through an open car window at Shelipov, who would die a few dozen meters from his own house. At the next village, the tank team was ambushed, killing Kufakov. After escaping, the remaining members eventually surrendered.[7] According to Ukrainian officials the shooting was captured on video.[13][14][15] On 4 May, the Security Service of Ukraine posted a video of Shishimarin describing how he had shot the victim. On 18 May Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said her office had been preparing war crimes cases against as many as 41 Russian soldiers.[16]
Shishimarin said he was ordered to shoot the civilian because it was feared the man would give away the position of the Russian soldiers.[17]
Criticism[edit]
Chris Jenks, Professor of Law at the Dedman School of Law in Dallas, Texas, stated that it appeared that key elements of the prosecution's case for a war crime were missing. One apparent flaw was that it did not appear to have been shown that Shishimarin was aware that he was carrying out an illegal order, an element "at the core of the case". Shishimarin's "age, rank, experience and circumstances" should have been considered in deciding whether he was aware of the illegality. Another apparent flaw, according to Jenks, was that the possibility of the Russian forces believing Shelipov to have been a justified military target had not been established to have been unreasonable.[7]