Wartime crimes are like nemesis which hunt the culprits for as long as they are alive somewhere on earth.
Ask WWII culprits who were arrested after several decades of going into hibernation and they will tell of the agony.
The ghosts of the crimes keep tabs on them and their shadows leave telltale signs of troubles waiting in the wings.
But for 21 years old Russian soldier, Sergeant Vadim Shyshimarin, his sin found him out rather quickly. He allegedly shot a 62 year old Ukrainian man dead.
The incident reportedly took place in the north-eastern Ukrainian village of Chupachivka in the Sumy region, late February 2022. The dead Ukrainian is identified as Alexander Shelipov.
At the courtroom in Kyiv, where the Russian soldier was tried by Judge Serhiy Agafonov, the convict revealed that he was acting on instruction of a superior officer in one of the Russian tank divisions, Kantemirovskaya.
Running against one of the laws of War that hitting civilian targets amounts to war crime, Sgt. Shyshimarin said he initially refused the order.
Incidentally, when he did shoot about three rounds, Shelipov was killed leaving his widow, Kateryna heartbroken.
In the courtroom, the Russian soldier stated that he fired out of fear for his life and safety. He told his defense lawyer that he had no intention to kill Shelipov.
In a media report, Shyshimarin was traveling with other soldiers in a car they seized when their unit was attacked. In the course of this, they strayed from their convoy.
However, it stands to reason how only the sergeant was captured from the car in which they were driving.
The young soldier was given a life jail sentence because the judge said there was no other option.
Judge Agafonov said the crime was against humanity, security and peace.
Shyshimarin’s lawyer has indicated that an appeal against the verdict will be filed.
Tearful widow of the late Shelipov was at the courtroom to witness the proceedings that sent the soldier to jail.
That is on the one side. As the spool of war crimes allegedly against Russia unwinds, a second trial shows up in central Ukraine.
The trial of two Alexanders, captured Russian soldiers, for violating the conventions of War, came up in a District Court in central Ukraine.
Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov could bag up to 30 years in jail if they are convicted.
Members of an artillery unit, they fired at spots in the Kharkiv region and destroyed a school in Derhachi. They pleaded guilty to the crime.
Legal ‘tit for tat’
A scenario is already playing out in Moscow, according to reports that the Kremlin is preparing a response. It intends to draft appropriate laws to drag Ukrainian Prisoners of War (POWs) to its own courtrooms for war crimes.
Legally, it promises to be a judicial ‘tit-for-tat’, but Russia has so many odds all stacked against it. There have been so many war crimes charges against it in Syria, Georginia, Creamea and other north east parts of Ukraine.
Even presently, the military invasion going on in Ukraine is said to leave several thousand cases of war crime against it.
Moscow never agrees that it has committed any war crime in its conflict with Ukraine.
However, Kyiv counts thousands of war crimes against it.
Since the reported horrific sight of decomposing bodies at the mass grave at Bucha, an outskirt city near Kyiv, forensic experts from around the globe have visited. Their mission is to investigate and find out the cause of such a disaster.
In the main, investigators of the site are officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC), and that speaks volumes in itself as evidence has been garnered.
Beside the ICC, The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is also on ground in Ukraine to ascertain things.
What constitutes war crime
Interestingly, the International Committee of the Red Cross says that war has rules under the Geneva Convention including several international laws.
These rules include that civilians and buildings/structures that service them cannot be attacked.
Others are:
-use of chemical and biological weapons against them are banned to avoid unleashing suffering
-no rape, murder and persecution of civilians
-no genocide
-injured soldiers (as POWs), the sick and wounded must be cared for
For now Ukraine remains a fertile ground to pick up war crimes against Putin and his soldiers.
Both US President Joe Biden and the UK’s PM Boris Johnson have accused Putin of committing crimes in the theater of war in Ukraine.
They hold him responsible for the atrocities unfolding there.
Other things being equal, the time bomb against Putin is ticking.