Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – The trial of a Russian soldier accused of killing a Ukrainian civilian opened Friday, the first trial on war crimes since the attack on neighboring Moscow.
Dozens of journalists crowded a courtroom in the Ukrainian capital, where the suspect appeared in a small glass cage to begin a trial that has garnered international attention amid repeated allegations of brutality of Russian forces.
Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is accused of shooting at the head of a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the northeastern village of Chupakhivka. He could face life imprisonment.
The killing took place in the early days of the war, when Russian tanks en route to Kiev were suddenly destroyed and the tank crew retreated.
Shishimarin, a member of a tank unit captured by Ukrainian forces, admitted to shooting a civilian in a video released by the Ukrainian security service.
“I was ordered to shoot,” Shishimarin said of the murder on Feb. 28. “I shot him one (round). He fell. And we continued our walk. “
According to Ukraine’s security service, Shishimarin’s video statement was “one of the earliest confessions by enemy occupiers”.
The trial comes as Russia’s campaign to occupy eastern Ukraine is about to close, but its aggression has had far -reaching consequences across the battlefield.
The Finnish president and prime minister said on Thursday that two and a half months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there had been panic from Moscow’s neighbors. The Scandinavian country must immediately apply for membership in NATO, a military defense agreement partially established against the Soviet Union.
“It was caused by you (Russia). “You look in the mirror,” Finnish President Saul Niinisto said.
The Finnish parliament has not yet considered it, but the statement means it will definitely be applied and accepted. The process can take several months. Sweden is also considering entering under NATO protection.
This represents a significant change in the security landscape in Europe: Sweden avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, while Finland gained neutrality after the defeat of the Soviet Union in World War II.
The Kremlin warns that retaliation is “technical-military” measures can be taken.
After the invasion, public opinion in both countries changed significantly in favor of NATO membership, raising fears among countries on Russia’s side that they were next.
Such an expansion of the alliance would leave Russia surrounded by NATO countries in the Baltic and Arctic and lead to a painful defeat for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He expects NATO to divide Europe and retreat, but he sees the opposite.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was a handshake between Finland and Sweden.
NATO’s supply of Ukrainian weapons and other military support is crucial to Kiev’s impressive ability to prevent aggression, and the Kremlin once again warns that assistance could lead to direct conflict between NATO and Russia.
“There is always the risk of turning such a conflict into a full -fledged nuclear war, a scenario that would be catastrophic for everyone,” said Dmitry Medvedev, vice president of the Russian Security Council.
On the ground, the British Defense Ministry said on Friday that Russia had made no significant progress despite concentrating its forces in the Donbas after withdrawing troops from other territories.
British military officials said Russia had lost “significant” elements of at least one battalion tactical group – about 1,000 troops – and the equipment used to quickly deploy a temporary floating bridge while it tries to cross the Siversky River west of Severodonetsk.
“Crossing the river in a disputed environment is an extremely dangerous maneuver and indicates pressure exerted by Russian commanders to make progress on operations in eastern Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
As the fighting continued and Russia’s strikes continued, teachers tried to restore normalcy after the war closed schools in Ukraine and destroyed the lives of millions of children. In Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, classes are held at a subway station used as a bomb shelter, which has become home to many families.
“Then it just came to our attention. “Because now there is a war and a lot of people have lost their homes … There are parents who are fighting now,” said teacher Valeri Leiko. Thanks in part to the lessons, he said, “they felt that someone loved them.”
Children at school joined Leiko’s desk for history and art lessons at the subway station, where children now draw pictures on the walls.
The senior student, Anna Fedoriaka, was watching lectures on Ukrainian literature, also given by Kharkov professor Mikhail Spodar on the Internet from her basement.
Internet connections are a problem, Fedoriaca says. And, “It’s hard to focus when I have to do my homework with window explosions.”
At least two civilians were killed Thursday outside Kharkov, authorities said. The attacks also damaged the building, which houses the humanitarian aid department, municipal offices and hospitals, Vyacheslav Zadorenko, mayor of the suburban city of Derhach, wrote in a Telegram post.
None of the facilities are “related to military infrastructure,” Zadorenko said.
The head of the Ukrainian military in the eastern Luhansk region said on Friday that Russian forces had fired 31 times in residential areas the previous day, destroying dozens of homes, mainly in the villages of Hirske. and Popasnyansk and the Rubizhne bridge.
Russia’s advance in the Donbas was slow, but its troops gained ground and occupied several villages.
As for other developments, Ukrainian officials said their forces had withdrawn another Russian ship into the Black Sea, although there was no confirmation from Russia and no casualties were reported.
Vsevolod Bobrov’s logistics ship was badly damaged but he didn’t think it would sink when it tried to deliver an anti-aircraft system to Snake Island, said Oleks Arestovich, an adviser to the Ukrainian president.
In April, the Ukrainian army sank the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet. In March, it destroyed the Saratov landing craft.
Ukraine says Russian forces fired artillery and grenade launchers at Ukrainian troops around Zaporizhia, which is a haven for civilians fleeing Mariupol, and attacked the northern regions of Chernigov and Sumy.
The Ukrainian military also said Russian forces were moving additional artillery units to border areas near Chernigov, where at least three people had been killed in night attacks. Russian troops reportedly fired rockets at the Novhorod-Siversky school and students ’dormitory, destroying several other buildings, including private homes.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky condemned the attacks in an evening speech in the country.
“Of course, the Russian state is in a state where any education is on the way,” he said. “But what can be achieved by destroying Ukrainian schools?” “All Russian commanders who give such orders are just sick and have no cure.”
The southern port of Mariupol has largely been reduced to rubble, with little food, water or medicine, or what the mayor calls a “medieval ghetto”. The Ukrainian warriors continued there at the Azovstal steel mill, the last stronghold of the resistance in the city.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said talks were underway in Russia to free 38 seriously injured Ukrainian defenders from the factory. He said Ukraine expects to exchange 38 “significant” Russian POWs.
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Jessica Fish in Bakhmut, David Keaton in Kiev, Yura Karmanau in Lviv, Mstislav Chernov in Kharkov, Yari Tanner in Helsinki and other AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ucraina
Source: Huffpost
