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Ukraine gives Russian soldier life term

COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

KYIV, Ukraine — A captured Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian was sentenced by a Ukrainian court Monday to life in prison amid signs the Kremlin may, in turn, put on trial some of the fighters who surrendered at Mariupol’s steelworks.

In the first of the war crimes trials held by Ukraine, Russian Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, was sentenced for the killing of a 62-year-old man who was shot in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the opening days of the war.

Shishimarin, a member of a tank unit, had claimed he was following orders and

he apologized to the man’s widow in court.

His Ukraine-appointed defense attorney, Victor Ovsyanikov, argued his client had been unprepared for the “violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops encountered when they invaded. He said he would appeal.

Ukrainian civil liberties advocate Volodymyr Yavorskyy said it was “an extremely harsh sentence for one murder during the war.” But Aarif Abraham, a British-based human-rights lawyer, said the trial was conducted “with what appears to be full and fair due process,” including access to an attorney.

Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating thousands of potential war crimes.

Earlier in the war, Russian forces in Mariupol bombed a theater where civilians were sheltering and struck a maternity hospital. After Moscow’s withdrawal from around Kyiv weeks ago, mass graves were discovered and streets were strewn with bodies in towns such as Bucha.

Before Shishimarin’s sentencing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was unable to defend the soldier but will consider trying to do so “through other channels.”

Mary Ellen O’Connell, an expert on international law at the University of Notre Dame, said putting Shishimarin on trial could prove “extremely detrimental to Ukrainian soldiers in the hands of Russia.” She said Russia may decide to hold “show trials” of Ukrainians to boost the morale of its own soldiers and spread disinformation.

“Maybe it would have happened without the Ukrainians beginning trials,” O’Connell said. “But the timing suggests that the Ukrainians should have held back and perhaps still should, so that the Russians can’t say, ‘We’re just doing to their soldiers what they did to ours.’”

Russian authorities have threatened to hold trials of captured Ukrainians — namely, fighters who held out at Mariupol’s shattered steel plant, the last stronghold of resistance in the strategic southern port city. They surrendered and were taken prisoner last week, at which point Moscow claimed the capture of Mariupol was complete.

Russia’s main investigative body said it intends to interrogate the Mariupol defenders to “identify the nationalists” and determine whether they were involved in crimes against civilians.

Russian authorities have seized upon the far-right origins of one of the regiments there, calling the Azov Regiment’s fighters “Nazis” and accusing their commander without evidence of “numerous atrocities.” Russia’s top prosecutor has asked the country’s Supreme Court to designate the Azov Regiment a terrorist organization.

Family members of the fighters have pleaded for their eventual return to Ukraine as part of a prisoner swap.

DIPLOMAT QUITS

Elsewhere, Boris Bondarev, a veteran Russian diplomat at the U.N. office at Geneva, quit and sent a letter denouncing the “aggressive war unleashed” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Bondarev told The Associated Press: “It is intolerable what my government is doing now.”

In his letter, Bondarev said those who conceived the war “want only one thing — to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity.”

He also said Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is all about “warmongering, lies and hatred.”

Also, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for “maximum” sanctions against Russia in a video address to world leaders and executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He also revealed one of the deadliest single strikes of the war, a missile attack on a village near Kyiv that killed almost 90 people.

Zelenskyy said sanctions against the Kremlin must go further. He urged an embargo on Russian oil, a complete cutoff of trade and a withdrawal of foreign companies from the country.

“This is what sanctions should be: They should be maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor that wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbor would clearly know the immediate consequences of their actions,” said Zelenskyy, who received a standing ovation.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

On the battlefield, heavy fighting raged in the Donbas in the east, where Moscow’s forces have stepped up their bombardment. Cities not under Russian control were constantly shelled, and one Ukrainian official said Russian forces targeted civilians trying to flee.

Donetsk’s regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said three civilians died in Russian attacks there Monday and heavy fighting continued near the Luhansk region. The Donbas consists of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

He said the Russians were decimating cities in their attempt to take them over. Only about 320,000 people out of the region’s prewar population of 1.6 million remain, and Russian forces are targeting evacuation efforts, he said.

“They are killing us. They are killing the locals during evacuation,” Kyrylenko said.

On the eve of the threemonth anniversary of the start of the war, Zelenskyy said four missiles killed 87 people last week in the town of Desna, 34 miles north of Kyiv. The deaths were tallied after debris was cleared, he said.

The Russians have now concentrated their forces on Donbas cities and “are trying to destroy all life,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address to the nation.

In the Luhansk region, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, local authorities reported that a bridge leading to the administrative center of Sievierodonetsk was destroyed, leaving the partially encircled city reachable by just one road.

Some who fled the Donetsk region shared their suffering.

“We haven’t been able to see the sun for three months. We are almost blind because we were in darkness for three months,” said Rayisa Rybalko, who hid with her family first in their basement and then in a bomb shelter at a school before fleeing their village of Novomykhailivka. “The world should have seen that.”

Her son-in-law Dmytro Khaliapin said heavy artillery pounded the village.

“Houses are being ruined,” he said. “It’s a horror.”

MORE WEAPONS COMING

In other developments, nearly 50 defense leaders from around the world met Monday and agreed to send more advanced weapons to Ukraine, including missiles to protect its coast, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters in Washington.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “low-level” discussions are underway on how the U.S. may need to adjust its training of Ukrainian forces and on whether some U.S. troops should be based in Ukraine.

The U.S. withdrew its few troops in Ukraine before the war and has no plans to send in combat forces. Milley’s comments left open the possibility troops could return for embassy security or another non-combat role.

The U.S. embassy in Kyiv has partially reopened and is staffing up again and there have been questions about whether the U.S. will send a Marine security force back in to help protect the embassy or if other options should be considered.

Asked if U.S. special operations forces may go into Ukraine, which officials have insisted they are not doing yet, Milley said “any reintroduction of U.S. forces into Ukraine would require a presidential decision. So we’re a ways away from anything like that.”

Speaking to Pentagon reporters, Austin declined to say if the U.S. will send Ukraine high-tech mobile rocket launchers, which it has requested. But Austin said that some 20 nations announced Monday that they will send new packages of security assistance to Ukraine, as its war with Russia reaches the three-month mark.

In particular, he said Denmark has agreed to send a Harpoon launcher and missiles to Ukraine to help the country defend its coast.

Russia has ships in the Black Sea and has used them to launch cruise missiles into Ukraine. Russian ships have also stopped all commercial ship traffic from entering Ukraine ports.

“We’ve gained a sharper, shared sense of Ukraine’s priority requirements and the situation on the battlefield,” Austin told reporters at the close of the virtual meeting with the defense leaders. “Many countries are donating critically needed artillery ammunition, coastal defense systems and tanks and other armored vehicles. Others came forward with new commitments for training.”

The U.S. and other countries have been training Ukrainian forces in nearby European countries.

Austin added that the Czech Republic recently donated attack helicopters, tanks and rockets, and that Italy, Greece, Norway and Poland announced Monday new donations of artillery systems and ammunition.

“The nature of the fight, as you’ve heard us describe a number of times is … really shaped by artillery in this phase,” Austin said. “And we’ve seen serious exchanges of artillery fire over the last several weeks.”

Austin said that during the virtual meeting, Ukraine officials made clear their security needs. He said those are consistent with what has been identified in recent weeks — long-range artillery and rocket systems, armored personnel carriers and drones.

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2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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