A Ukrainian widow directly addressed the Russian soldier who killed her husband during emotional scenes at his war crimes trial.
Kateryna Shelypova took a moment to compose herself, before asking: ‘How did it feel to kill my husband.’
Vadim Shishimarin, the accused man in the dock, dropped his head before looking up to meet her gaze.
‘I plead guilty,’ he said.
The 21-year-old, wearing battered Russian army boots with his prison issue tracksuit, added: ‘I know that you will never be able to forgive me, but nevertheless I ask you for forgiveness for all that I have done.’
Kateryna was asked by the judge what punishment would fit the loss of her husband, 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov.
‘A life sentence,’ she said, before adding, unprompted: ‘But if he is exchanged for one of our captured fighters, I won’t mind that.’
Shishimarin is facing the first war crimes since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his bloody war in Ukraine.
He could get life in prison if convicted of shooting Mr Shelipov in the head through an open car window in a village in the north-eastern Sumy region on February 28, four days into the invasion.
The Russian soldier said he shot him on orders from two officers, who feared he could pinpoint their location to the Ukrainian forces.
Looking subdued, he said he at first disobeyed the order from his superior to shoot unarmed Mr Shelipov, but had no other choice when it was repeated forcefully by another officer.
Kateryna said her husband got caught in the cross fire after stepping outside their home to see what was going on.
She heard gunshots and, when the shooting ceased, walked out and found her husband dead.
‘He was all to me. He was my defender,’ she said.
The prosecutor asked for a life sentence for Shishimarin and the trial was adjourned until Friday.
Shishimarin, a captured member of a Russian tank unit, is being prosecuted under a section of the Ukrainian criminal code that addresses the laws and customs of war.
Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova previously said her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offences that included bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting.
It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects are in Ukrainian hands and how many would be tried in absentia.
As the inaugural war crimes case in Ukraine, Shishimarin’s prosecution was being watched closely.
Investigators have been collecting evidence of possible war crimes to bring before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
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