Kiev, Ukraine (AP)-A Ukrainian court sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life imprisonment Monday for killing a Ukrainian civilian in the first trial on war crimes since the Russian invasion.
Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin is accused of shooting the head of a Ukrainian civilian in a village in the northeastern district of Sumy during the early days of the war.
He pleaded guilty and testified that the man was shot after giving the order. He told the court that the officer insisted that a Ukrainian man talking on his cell phone could pinpoint their location to Ukrainian forces.
This is a news update. Below is the previous AP story.
Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces intensified shelling of Ukraine’s eastern industrial center as they launched an offensive in what is now the center of fighting. 3 months war.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian court is expected to convict a Russian soldier in the first trial on war crimes on Monday. A 21-year-old sergeant who pleaded guilty to shooting a Ukrainian man in the early days of the war could face life in prison.
The devastating fighting in the Donbas, where Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting in every city, has pushed many civilians to flee their homes.
“We haven’t seen the sun for three months. “We were almost blind because we were in the dark for three months,” said Raisa Rybalko, who hid first with her family in the basement and then in a bomb shelter at a local school before fleeing their village of Novomikhailivka. . “The world needs to see it.”
His son -in -law Dmitro Khaliapin said heavy artillery hit the village. “The houses were destroyed,” he said. “It’s awful.”
On Monday in Tokyo, US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Before leaving for Asia, Biden signed the Additional $ 40 Billion Ukraine Law to support U.S. defense against Russian aggression.
Polish President Andrzej Duda traveled to Kiev on Sunday to support Ukraine’s EU aspirations and addressed the Ukrainian parliament, where he praised lawmakers for allowing him to speak where “the heart of a free Ukraine will throb, “independent and democratic”.
Poland has become an important ally of Ukraine, welcoming millions of Ukrainian refugees and becoming a gateway for Western humanitarian aid and weapons and a transit point for some foreign fighters who have volunteered to fight Russian forces.
Western support – both financial and military – has been crucial to Ukraine’s defense, helping it fend off a large number of Russia’s unfortunate attempts to seize Kiev and fight them elsewhere. In the face of these failures, Moscow has outlined more limited goals in Ukraine and now seeks to expand territories occupied by Russian -backed separatists since 2014.
Ukrainian forces dug around Sivierodonetsk, the main Ukrainian -controlled city in the Donbass province of Lugansk, as Russia intensified its attempts to seize it. Governor Serhi Haidai accused the Russians of “deliberately trying to destroy the city … using a scorched earth approach”.
Haidai said on Sunday that the Russians had captured several cities and towns in Lugansk after 24 hours of indiscriminate bombing and concentration of forces and weapons there, which brought troops northwest of Kharkov, Mariupol. in the south and in Russia.
But the Ukrainian army said Russian forces failed to carry out the attack on Oleksandrvka, near the village of Sievierdonetsky.
The Ukrainian parliament on Sunday supported for the third time, until August 23, the extension of the state of war and the mobilization of the armed forces. Ukrainian officials have said little about casualties in their country since the war began, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that up to 50 people in the east appear to have lost 100 Ukrainian fighters every day.
While the East is now the focus of the escape, the battle is not limited. Loud explosions were heard Monday morning in Korosten, 160 kilometers west of Kiev, the city’s deputy mayor said. According to Ukrainian news agencies, this is the third day of apparent attacks in the Zhytomyr region.
In other developments, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska and her husband gave an extraordinary interview to national broadcaster ICTV, saying they have hardly seen it since the war began.
“Our family, like all Ukrainian families, is far away now,” he said.
Zelensky himself called the interview a “date on the air” and the couple, who have two children, joked in front of reporters.
“We are joking, but we hope to unite like everyone else, as well as all the families in Ukraine who are now gone, waiting for their relatives and friends who want to be together again,” he said.
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This was reported by Bekatoros of Donetsk. Associated Press reporters Yura Carmanau in Lviv, Andrea Rosa in Kharkov and other AP staff members from around the world.
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Follow the AP coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Source: Huffpost
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.