Just days into the February invasion, 21-year-old Russian Tank commander Vadim Shishimarin shot and killed 62-year-old Ukrainian civilian Oleksandr Shelypov with an AK-47 while he was pushing his bicycle home in Chupakhivk.
A Russian tank commander who is now on trial for the murder of an innocent Ukrainian grandpa could be used in a prisoner swap.
Despite shooting unarmed Oleksandr Shelypov, 62, Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, on trial for war crimes, grinned in the dock as he heard he would be set free as part of an exchange.
During cross-examination by his victim’s widow Kateryn, 61, at Kyiv’s Appeal Court yesterday, the 21-year-old POW begged for “forgiveness” and lowered his head.
On the fifth day of his country’s invasion, a sadistic soldier from Irkutsk, Siberia, shot Oleksandr in the head with an AK-47 assault rifle in the north-eastern village of Chupakhivk.
But his mood immediately shifted when prosecutors revealed that two of his buddies who were supposed to testify against him had been swapped and that he could face the same fate.
The defendant faces life in jail after the case was deferred for sentencing today.
On Thursday, Kateryna told judges she would accept exchanging her husband’s killer for 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers detained during the Azovstal factory siege in Mariupol.
Kateryna had earlier expressed her want for him to “rot in jail.”
She said: “I want him to get life, but if he is exchanged for defenders of the Azovstal, our boys from Mariupol, I will not mind. I will not be against it.”
The defending militants who had been living in the tunnels beneath the captured factory are being held by Moscow forces.
Before falling under Russian control, the southern port city was subjected to virtually continual bombardment, leaving it mainly in ruins – one of Vladimir Putin’s few victories during the war.
But despite being outnumbered, the Ukrainian military remained in the plant until this week.
Kyiv has acknowledged that it is arranging a fighter exchange for Russian detainees.
The Kremlin, on the other hand, has not openly agreed to anything.
Putin is rumored to be considering putting Ukrainians on trial.
Image Credit: Getty
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