The lawyer for a Russian soldier who was the first to go on trial for an alleged war crime in Ukraine asked a Kyiv court Friday to acquit his client, who had admitted killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian during the first days of the war.
Defense attorney Victor Ovsyanikov argued that his client, Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, had been unprepared for the “violent military confrontation” and mass casualties that Russian troops encountered when they first invaded Ukraine.
