The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
European foreign ministers approved the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine during a meeting in Lviv on May 9. The tribunal, which will operate under the auspices of the Council of Europe, aims to prosecute Russia's top political and military leadership, including President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine expects the tribunal to start work in 2026. The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Hodunova spoke with Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel about the future tribunal and its role in bringing justice for Ukraine.
Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
Ukraine's underground storage facilities are currently using 19.4% of their capacity. Almost 32%, or 2.79 bcm, less gas is available in the storages than in the previous year, according to the estimates.
The majority of Ukrainians, 71%, do not support holding elections before a full peace deal, even in the case of a ceasefire and security guarantees, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 14.
"He'd like me to be there, and that's a possibility. ... I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there. We're going to find out," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Qatar, Reuters reported.
Trump has long demanded that NATO allies increase their military spending, previously calling for the alliance to raise its benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
More than 1,000 Russian government entities and 1,200 private companies are involved in the economy of occupied Mariupol, a major southeastern city occupied by Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to a research paper published on May 14.
Vadim Shishimarin, 21, the first Russian soldier, on trial for a war crime in Ukraine since Russia began its all-out war on Feb. 24. in Kyiv court on May 20, 2022. (Anna Myroniuk)
Days after Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin, 21, pleaded guilty to killing an unarmed civilian, his lawyer asked for the defendant to be acquitted.
“He does not deny that he fired a shot. (Yet) he did not know whether he killed this person,” lawyer Viktor Ovsyannikov told the judges during the third day of litigation.
“If he had realized that, what was the point for him to surrender himself?” Ovsyannikov added.
Shishimarin, a sergeant in the Russian army, is accused of killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov as his unit was retreating from Ukraine’s northern Sumy Oblast.
Shishimarin shot him in the head. On May 18, he pledged guilty and said he was ready for any punishment. Now, the soldier’s defense says he was ordered to shoot by his superior and didn’t intend to kill.
The prosecution doesn’t agree, seeking a life sentence for what, if proven guilty, constitutes a war crime.
Trial
On Feb. 28, Shishimarin and four of his comrades in arms were driving a stolen civilian car through the village of Chupakhivka in Sumy Oblast near Ukraine’s northern border with Russia.
Local villager, Shelipov, was on the street talking by phone. Shishimarin took his Kalashnikov assault rifle and shot him in the head from a car window.
Soon, after being ambushed by Ukrainian hunters, lacking the means to leave Ukraine, Shishimarin surrendered.
According to Ovsyannikov, Shishimarin was ordered to shoot Shelipov by superiors and had to obey.
“He was pressured by two people who he perceived as his commanders in that circumstance,” Ovsyannikov said.
Ovsyannikov added that Shishimarin did not want to kill Shelipov.
“He did not have the intention to kill him. His shots were not aimed. He carried out the order pro forma, not with an intention to kill a person,” the lawyer went on.
“I sincerely regret what I did. At that moment, I was nervous, there were hostilities. I did not want to kill. But it happened...” Shishimarin said, once again asking for forgiveness.
Vadym Shishimarin, 21, the first Russian soldier on trial for a war crime in Ukraine since Russia began its all-out war on Feb. 24. in Kyiv court on May 20, 2022. (Anna Myroniuk)
Vadym Shishimarin, 21, the first Russian soldier on trial for a war crime in Ukraine since Russia began its all-out war on Feb. 24. in Kyiv court on May 20, 2022. (Anna Myroniuk)
The prosecutors, however, argued that Shishimarin did not have to obey orders coming from his fellow soldiers as they were from another unit, and he was not their subordinate.
“There is no clause in the military regulations of the Russian Federation saying that a soldier can kill a civilian,” prosecutor Yaroslav Ushyapivskiy said.
“Shishimarin realized that the order was to kill that man and still carried it out, firing his machine gun three or four times,” the prosecutor added.
“He deliberately killed a civilian,” Ushyapivskiy went on.
Serhiy Agafonov, a judge, sits at a trial of a Russian soldier accused of killing a civilian during Russia's retreat from Ukraine in Kyiv on May 20, 2022. (Anna Myroniuk)
The court is set to make a judgment on May 23.
Ovsyannikov, however, is already preparing to appeal, adding that if it will be necessary, he’ll bring Shishimarin’s case to a European court.
Anna Myroniuk is the head of investigations at the Kyiv Independent. Anna has run investigative projects on human rights, healthcare and illicit trade. She also investigated political and corporate misconduct and alleged wrongdoings in the Ukraine army's leadership. Anna holds a Masters in Investigative Journalism from the City University of London. She is a Chevening Scholar, the European Press Prize 2023 winner, the winner of the #AllForJan Award 2023, an honoree of the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe Media & Marketing list, the runner-up in the investigative reporting category of the 2022 European Press Prize, and a finalist of the 2022 Ukraine's National Investigative Journalism Award and the 2020 Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award.
