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Russian army Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, is seen behind a glass during a court hearing in Kyiv. Efrem Lukatsky/PA

Russian soldier accused of war crime put on trial in Ukraine

Sgt Vadim Shyshimarin, 21, is accused of shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head in the north-east village of Chupakhivka.

THE TRIAL OF a Russian soldier accused of killing a Ukrainian civilian has opened, marking the first war crimes case since Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.

Scores of journalists packed inside a small courtroom in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where the suspect appeared in a small glass cage for the start of a trial that has drawn international attention amid accusations of repeated atrocities by Russian forces.

Sergeant Vadim Shyshimarin, 21, is accused of shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head in the north-east village of Chupakhivka.

He could get up to life in prison.

The killing occurred in the early days of the war, when Russian tanks advancing on Kyiv were unexpectedly overrun and retreated.

Shyshimarin, a member of a tank unit captured by Ukrainian forces, admitted shooting the civilian in a video posted by the Security Service of Ukraine.

“I was ordered to shoot,” he said of the killing on 28 February.

“I shot one (round) at him. He falls. And we kept on going.”

Shyshimarin’s video statement is “one of the first confessions of the enemy invaders”, according to the Ukrainian security service.

The trial comes as Russia’s campaign to take Ukraine’s east slowly grinds on — but its invasion has resulted in widespread repercussions beyond the battlefield.

russia-ukraine-war Russian army Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin arrives for a court hearing in Kyiv. Efrem Lukatsky / PA Efrem Lukatsky / PA / PA

Two and a half months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s neighbours, Finland’s President and prime minister announced Thursday that the Nordic country should apply right away for membership of Nato, the military defence pact founded in part to counter the Soviet Union.

“You (Russia) caused this. Look in the mirror,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

Finland’s Parliament still has to weigh in but the announcement means it is all but certain to apply — and gain admission.

The process could take months to complete.

Sweden, likewise, is considering putting itself under Nato’s protection.

That would represent a major change in Europe’s security landscape; Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, while Finland adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in the Second World War.

The Kremlin warned it may take retaliatory “military-technical” steps.

Public opinion in both nations shifted dramatically in favour of Nato membership after the invasion, which stirred fears in countries along Russia’s flank that they could be next.

Such an expansion of the alliance would leave Russia surrounded by Nato countries in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic and would amount to a stinging setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He had hoped to divide and roll back Nato in Europe but is instead seeing the opposite happen.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has said the alliance would welcome Finland and Sweden with open arms.

Nato’s funnelling of weapons and other military support to Ukraine has been critical to Kyiv’s surprising ability to stymie the invasion, and the Kremlin warned anew that the aid could lead to direct conflict between Nato and Russia.

“There is always a risk of such conflict turning into a full-scale nuclear war, a scenario that will be catastrophic for all,” said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s security council.

On the ground, Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said today that Russia has not made any significant advances despite concentrating forces in the Donbas after withdrawing troops from other areas.

British military officials said Russia lost “significant” elements of at least one battalion tactical group — about 1,000 troops — and equipment that were used to quickly deploy a makeshift floating bridge while trying to cross the Siverskyi Donets River west of Severodonetsk.

“Conducting river crossings in a contested environment is a highly risky manoeuvre and speaks to the pressure the Russian commanders are under to make progress in their operations in eastern Ukraine,” the MoD said in its daily intelligence update.

As the fighting and Russian strikes persisted, teachers were trying to restore some sense of normalcy after the war shut Ukraine’s schools and devastated the lives of millions of children.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, lessons are being given in a subway station used as a bomb shelter that has become home for many families.

“It helps to support them mentally. Because now there is a war, and many lost their homes … some people’s parents are fighting now,” said teacher Valeriy Leiko.

In part thanks to the lessons, he said, “they feel that someone loves them”.

Primary school-age children joined Leiko around a table for history and art classes in the subway station, where children’s drawings now line the walls.

An older student, Anna Fedoryaka, was monitoring lectures on Ukrainian literature being given by Kharkiv professor Mykhailo Spodarets online from his basement.

Internet connections were a problem, Fedoryaka said. And “it is hard to concentrate when you have to do your homework with explosions by your window”.

At least two civilians were killed on the outskirts of Kharkiv on Thursday, authorities said.

The attacks also damaged a building housing a humanitarian aid unit, municipal offices and hospital facilities, Vyacheslav Zadorenko, the mayor of the suburban town of Derhachi, wrote in a Telegram post.

None of the sites “had anything to do with military infrastructure”, Zadorenko said.

The Ukrainian military chief for the eastern Luhansk region said on Friday that Russian forces opened fire 31 times on residential areas the day before, destroying dozens of homes, notably in Hirske and Popasnianska villages, and a bridge in Rubizhne.

Russia’s advance in the Donbas has been slow but its forces have gained some ground and taken some villages.

russia-ukraine-war An elderly woman walks inside a metro station being used as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv. Mstyslav Chernov / PA Mstyslav Chernov / PA / PA

In other developments, Ukrainian officials said their forces took out another Russian ship in the Black Sea, though there was no confirmation from Russia and no casualties were reported.

The Vsevolod Bobrov logistics ship was badly damaged but not thought to have sunk when it was hit while trying to deliver an anti-aircraft system to Snake Island, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In April, the Ukrainian military sank the Moskva cruiser, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

In March, it destroyed the landing ship Saratov.

Ukraine said Russian forces fired artillery and grenade launchers at Ukrainian troops around Zaporizhzhia, which has been a refuge for civilians fleeing Mariupol, and attacked in the Chernihiv and Sumy regions to the north.

The Ukrainian military also said Russian forces were transferring additional artillery units to border areas near Chernihiv, where overnight strikes killed at least three people.

It said Russian troops fired rockets at a school and student dormitory in Novhorod-Siversky and that some other buildings, including private homes, were also damaged.

In his evening address to the nation, Zelenskyy condemned the assaults.

“Of course, the Russian state is in such a state that any education only gets in its way,” he said.

“But what can be achieved by destroying Ukrainian schools? All Russian commanders who give such orders are simply sick and incurable.”

The southern port of Mariupol has largely been reduced to smoking rubble with little food, water or medicine, or what the mayor called a “medieval ghetto”.

Ukrainian fighters there continued to hold out at the Azovstal steel plant, the last stronghold of resistance in the city.

Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said negotiations were underway with Russia to win the release of 38 severely wounded Ukrainian defenders from the plant.

She said Ukraine hoped to exchange them for 38 “significant” Russian prisoners of war.

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    Mute Philip Nolan
    Favourite Philip Nolan
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    Aug 31st 2011, 12:34 PM

    As a very frequent traveller, I have used the scanners in US airports and could care less to be honest. I’ve seen people more exposed in their photo albums on Facebook. The queues for the scanners are much quicker than the standard queues, the person instructing you how to stand can’t see the scan anyway (the images are monitored remotely) and it’s not like they’re going to discuss your naked form with anyone you know! In Schipol recently, I was subjected to a pat-down that would have been classed as a sexual assault in the real world and I was livid about it. I’d rather have been offered the option of the scanner.

    43
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    Mute Bertie SirCastic
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    Aug 31st 2011, 12:28 PM

    Guy in the xray could do with a Steak sandwich or two!

    40
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    Mute Robert LYNCH
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    Aug 31st 2011, 11:48 AM

    Great…NOT!!!… Dublin yet again are going to follow the example of London Airports it would seem… I personal have a problem with the level of intrusion and the general feeling of being treated like dirt that flying by plane has become. I am flying via London in a couple of weeks, but since I have now found out that this full-body scan is now mandatory there, I will no longer fly in our out of London unless it is my destination. As for the effectiveness of these scanners (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimeter_wave_scanner), I have serious doubts in general that any of this treatment like cattle is improving anyone’s safety.

    38
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    Mute Gain & Sustain
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    Aug 31st 2011, 12:28 PM

    Clearly you have something to hide, I think this system is great

    46
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    Mute stephen corrigan
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    Aug 31st 2011, 3:47 PM

    1 question, bomb or scan?? Even drugs can be found so whats the problem.

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    Mute Robert LYNCH
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    Aug 31st 2011, 3:51 PM

    Maybe I do. However what I have to hide is not going to bring down a plane, e.g. prosthetics including breast prostheses, and other medical equipment normally hidden, such as colostomy bags are all things that someone may not want the people around him/her to be aware of. I am sure you can think of a whole range of other things that are the private business of individuals and of no concern to airport authorities. However all these things will be viewed and displayed by this machine with little if in any improvement to airport security.

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    Mute Terry Connolly
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    Aug 31st 2011, 12:30 PM

    love the belly button!

    30
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    Mute EM
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    Aug 31st 2011, 12:47 PM

    If the image is as per the picture above then i’d have no issue with this tbh as it’s not particularly invasive.

    26
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    Mute Denzer
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    Aug 31st 2011, 1:33 PM

    Id be more concerned with the potential radiation effects. Had a quick look through the literature… There is Very little peer reviewed information supporting it as non genotoxic- as claimed by manufacturers. May not be a concern for those who take a couple of flights a year but there could be legitimate concerns from frequent flyers with prolonged exposure to the technology.

    20
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    Mute starflyergold
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    Aug 31st 2011, 2:08 PM

    Germany trialled these in Hamburg and the machines produced an staggering failure rate. 61% of pax passed through without a problem, 31% had to be padded down (hard). In 54% of cases a false alarm was recorded. Result: significant delays in processing passengers.

    20
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    Mute Maura Murphy
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    Sep 1st 2011, 1:25 PM

    Germany has abandoned plans to use scanners at its airports and will not reconsider until the technology is more reliable and meets “high security standards,” interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said Wednesday

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    Mute Aidan M
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    Aug 31st 2011, 12:02 PM

    Stupid.

    18
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    Mute Niall Carson
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    Aug 31st 2011, 5:06 PM

    What bunch of sheeple we have become. These are dangerous microwaves. Seriously read into this a bit more. There have been many problems with this in America. Not least the TSA agent who shot his colleagues because they made jokes about the size of his penis after a training scan.

    15
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    Mute bob_mac_E
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    Aug 31st 2011, 1:55 PM

    Are xray machines not cancerous? Do the guards hide behind lead walls like a nurse at the hospital?

    15
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    Mute hjGfIgAq
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    Aug 31st 2011, 2:06 PM

    @Bob – When I spoke to DAA earlier they were keen to stress that they’re not “x-ray machines”, in that their intensity is much lesser than a standard booth.

    11
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    Mute Fred FedUp
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    Aug 31st 2011, 2:09 PM

    Yep, they are cancerous…No, guards not behind lead walls, just eating up the radiation like it’s good for them and getting cancer..From Chicago, TSA heads now have cancer from operating these type of machines.. http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/30/did-airport-scanners-give-boston-tsa-agents-cancer/ So, we’ve option A – groping and pat downs to make sure we’re not “dangerous” or option B – an invasive scan that will shower you in radiation..Just great…This is 1984 people…

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    Mute hjGfIgAq
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    Aug 31st 2011, 2:24 PM

    @Fred (and Bob): The machines that TIME article refers to are a different type of ‘booth’-style scanner than is being considered in Dublin.

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    Mute gareth byrne
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    Aug 31st 2011, 6:38 PM

    Jesus.These scanners are on TRAIL for 18 months in staff areas.Not been used in public areas.Which mean they are not coming in at dap untill ALL tests are carried out.What does it take for people to cop on.These are the times we live in.get used to it.

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    Mute Paddy O'Reilly
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    Aug 31st 2011, 9:13 PM

    Looks like milimeter wave scanners only penetrate the clothes and are stopped by skin. So why not just tape a load of contraband to your leg, then wrap it in pigskin (the most common human analog from Mythbusters). Sorted.

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    Mute Oil Foster
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    Aug 31st 2011, 8:14 PM

    Thank god for the Internet, giving people totally accurate and factual information.

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    Mute Bertie SirCastic
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    Aug 31st 2011, 3:09 PM

    Would be hilarious seeing Hugh Hefner pass through one off these the morning after…

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    Mute Patrick Halpin
    Favourite Patrick Halpin
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    Sep 2nd 2011, 7:45 AM

    Hh

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