The shocking revelation was recorded by Ukraine’s security service (SBU) from an interception of a telephone conversation between the soldier and his mother. Russian troops are accused of committing serious crimes against humanity during their military campaign in Ukraine. Horrific evidence of Putin’s army targeting and killing innocent civilians has been revealed in Bucha and Borodyanka – satellite towns of Kyiv.
Sickening reports have also emerged of women and children being raped by rampaging Russian soldiers.
Now, new evidence has been unearthed, which appears to implicate Russian soldiers in the murder of prisoners of war – a clear breach of the Geneva Convention.
The Russian soldier explained to his mother: “He really needed to go to the toilet.
“We told him: ‘You are going home now. Go to the toilet and then you’re off home’.
“He turned to go to the toilet – and we shot him in the back.”
The mother appears to not understand, believing the Ukrainians shot their own soldier – a common lie spread by Russian propagandists.
She replies: “That’s what they do, the swines….they shoot their own.”
However her son corrects her mistake, insisting: “No, we were the ones that shot him.”
In a statement accompanying the audio release, the SBU vowed to bring those guilty of committing war crimes to justice.
They wrote: “The SBU documents further evidence of violations by the Russian army of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
“In the new SBU interception, the occupier recorded his crimes for international courts.
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The 21-year-old tank commander is alleged to have fired several shots at the civilian’s head using an assault rifle.
The defendant was with four other soldiers, who were all attempting to escape an attack on their column by Ukrainian forces.
They stole a car and drove into the village, where they came across the unarmed Ukrainian civilian.
Mr Shishimarin made a brief appearance at the hearing to confirm he was a Russian serviceman. The court will reconvene on May 18.
If convicted he faces up to life imprisonment over the killing in the northeast Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka, east of the capital Kyiv, on February 28.