‘Devil’s advocate’? Russian soldier’s Ukrainian lawyer defends role on eve of verdict | Ukraine

Defending a Russian soldier accused of a war criminal offense in Ukraine is no simple undertaking, which is why some folks have explained Viktor Ovsyannikov as “the devil’s advocate”.

But the 43-year-previous Ukrainian is unrepentant. “First of all, I am defending a human being, not a crime,” Ovsyannikov claimed on Sunday on the eve of the verdict in the trial of 21-year-aged tank commander Vadim Shysimarin, who has presently pleaded responsible to killing an an unarmed civilian in late February. “I’m making an attempt to demonstrate that my defendant’s actions ended up misqualified. It is up to judges to come to a decision. I just do my career.”

“My family members, good friends and colleagues assist me,” Ovsyannikov extra. “They know somebody has to do it. But there are other people who ‘invited’ me to go to Moscow or Donbas [the location in jap Ukraine claimed by Russia-backed separatists.”

Prosecutors were astonished on Friday when Ovsyannikov requested judges in the courtroom in Kyiv to acquit Shysimarin inspite of his guilty plea, on the grounds that he had executed an purchase. The Ukrainian prosecutor Andriy Syniuk claimed the instruction to open hearth could not be thought of a navy get and thus did not defend Shysimarin from accountability.

Ukraine has designed seeking justice for atrocities committed by Russian troops a precedence and countrywide prosecutors are jeopardizing their very own life to acquire proof of war crimes even in locations nonetheless threatened by enemy forces or laced with mines.

Shysimarin comes from Ust Illyinsk in the south-east Irkutsk location of Russia and was a commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division on 28 February, the day that 62-year-previous Oleksandr Shelipov died in Chupakhivka village.

Prosecutors say a team of Russian soldiers shot at a civilian car immediately after their convoy came underneath assault from Ukrainian forces, then stole the vehicle and drove it absent. They later came throughout the unarmed target, who was talking on his cell phone a several dozen metres from his home. 1 of the adult males in the auto informed Shysimarin “to get rid of a civilian so he would not report them to Ukrainian defenders”, according to prosecutors. He opened fireplace out of the motor vehicle window, and shot down Shelipov.

This is not Ovsyannikov’s to start with controversial demo. In 2014, he defended the Russia-backed previous president Viktor Yanukovych, who was at some point uncovered responsible of significant treason and sentenced in absentia to 13 years in jail around tries to quash a professional-western uprising.

Ovsyannikov argues that at any time considering that he approved the task of defending Shysimarin, people today have questioned him the similar query: “How can you defend a war felony?”

“And I am so exhausted of outlining that, in Ukraine, only a court of legislation can recognise one as a felony. And, as considerably as I know, there is no verdict for my defendant at the second.”

The trial is unparalleled in Ukraine, exactly where authorities are relocating rapid and trying to carry out justice although conflict is ongoing. Ukraine’s prosecutor typical, Iryna Venediktova, has claimed she is planning a lot more than 40 situations for war crimes trials. Monday’s verdict is being found as a community examination of the independence of Ukraine’s judicial method.

“Of class, it is pretty an significant take a look at and there is even much better pressure from society on the judges to obtain him guilty,” stated Ovsyannikov

“My initially effect of Shysimarin was of an standard human being, just like you or me,” Ovsyannikov said. “My next perception, when I started out to work with him, is that he commenced to recognize what had carried out. The only matter he dreams now is to go back again residence. I am below this impression that he perceives this as some type of a dream.”

“Sometimes,” he additional. “I sense pity for him.”