KYIV, Ukraine
A Ukrainian court sentenced a
captured Russian soldier to the maximum penalty of life in prison for killing a
civilian and the Kremlin hinted that it may put on trial some of the fighters
who surrendered at Mariupol’s steelworks.
Meanwhile, in a rare public
expression of opposition to the war from the ranks of the Russian elite, a
veteran Kremlin diplomat resigned and sent a scathing letter Monday to
foreign colleagues in which he said of the invasion, “Never have I been so
ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24.”
Also, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy called
for “maximum” sanctions against Russia in a video address to world
leaders and executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Separately, he revealed one of the deadliest single strikes of the war, a
missile attack on a village near Kyiv that killed almost 90 people.
And on the battlefield, heavy
fighting raged in the Donbas in the east, where Moscow’s forces have stepped up
their bombardment. Cities not under Russian control were constantly shelled,
and one Ukrainian official said Russian forces targeted civilians trying to
flee.
In the first of what could be
a multitude of war crimes trials held by Ukraine, Russian Sgt. Vadim
Shishimarin, 21, was sentenced for the killing of a 62-year-old man who was
shot in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the
opening days of the war.
Shishimarin, a member of a
tank unit, had claimed he was following orders, and he apologized to the man’s
widow in court.
His Ukraine-appointed defense
attorney, Victor Ovsyanikov, argued his client had been unprepared for the
“violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops
encountered when they invaded. He said he would appeal.
Ukrainian prosecutors are
investigating thousands of potential war crimes. Russian forces in
Mariupol bombed
a theater where civilians were sheltering and struck
a maternity hospital. In the wake of Moscow’s withdrawal from around Kyiv
weeks ago, mass graves were discovered and streets were strewn with
bodies in
towns such as Bucha.
Before Shishimarin’s
sentencing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was unable to
defend the soldier but will consider trying to do so “through other channels.”
Mary Ellen O’Connell, an
expert on international law at the University of Notre Dame, said that putting
Shishimarin on trial could prove “extremely detrimental to Ukrainian soldiers
in the hands of Russia.” She said Russia may decide to hold “show trials” of
Ukrainians to boost the morale of its own soldiers and spread disinformation.
Russian authorities have
threatened to hold trials of captured Ukrainians — namely, fighters who held
out at Mariupol’s shattered steel plant, the last stronghold of resistance in
the strategic southern port city. They surrendered and were taken prisoner last
week, at which point Moscow claimed the capture of Mariupol was complete.
Russia’s main investigative
body said it intends to interrogate the Mariupol defenders to “identify the
nationalists” and determine whether they were involved in crimes against
civilians.
Russian authorities have
seized upon the far-right origins of one of the regiments there, calling the
Azov Regiment’s fighters “Nazis” and accusing their commander without evidence
of “numerous atrocities.” Russia’s top prosecutor has asked the country’s
Supreme Court to designate the Azov Regiment a terrorist organization.
Family members of the fighters
have pleaded for their eventual return to Ukraine as part of a prisoner swap.
Elsewhere, Boris Bondarev, a
veteran Russian diplomat at the U.N. office at Geneva, quit and sent a letter
denouncing the “aggressive war unleashed” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bondarev told The Associated Press: “It is intolerable what my government is
doing now.”
In his letter, Bondarev said
those who conceived the war “want only one thing — to remain in power forever,
live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and
cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete
impunity.”
He also said Russia’s Ministry
of Foreign Affairs is all about “warmongering, lies and hatred.”
At the Davos forum, Zelenskyy
said sanctions against the Kremlin must go further. He urged an embargo on
Russian oil, a complete cutoff of trade and a withdrawal of foreign companies
from the country.
Later, in his evening address
to the nation, Zelensky said that four missiles killed 87 people last week in
the town of Desna, 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Kyiv. The deaths were
tallied after debris was cleared, he said.
On the battlefield, Russian forces
increased their bombardment of the Donbas, the eastern industrial heartland of
coal mines and factories that Russia is bent on capturing.
Donetsk’s regional governor,
Pavlo Kyrylenko, said three civilians died in Russian attacks there Monday and
heavy fighting continued near the Luhansk region. The Donbas consists of the
Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
He said the Russians were
decimating cities in their attempt to take them over. Only about 320,000 people
out of the region’s prewar population of 1.6 million remain, and Russian forces
are targeting evacuation efforts, he said.
“They are killing us. They are
killing the locals during evacuation,” Kyrylenko said.
In the Luhansk region, U.N.
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, local authorities reported that a bridge
leading to the administrative center of Sievierodonetsk was destroyed, leaving
the partially encircled city reachable by just one road. - AP
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