Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual press conference in Moscow on December 18, 2014. Putin crushed Chechnya's rebellion, pushed back Russia's frontiers and restored the pride of a nation humiliated by the demise of the Soviet Union. But 15 years after he came to power Vladimir Putin's faces his biggest challenge yet: how to manage the worst monetary crisis of his era. AFP PHOTO / KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
A Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since the start of the war has pleaded guilty to charges of killing a Ukrainian civilian.
Vadim Shyshimarin, 21, appeared in a Kyiv court on Wednesday accused of shooting a Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region on February 28, four days into Moscow’s invasion.
If convicted, he could be imprisoned for life.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has previously said her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offences including 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 could be tried in absentia.
