Russian tank commander, 21, has life…

Russian tank commander, 21, has life sentence for killing 62-year-old civilian REDUCED to 15 years by Ukrainian appeals court 

• Vadim Shishimarin, 21, sentenced to life in prison for war crimes back in May
• He became the first Russian soldier to be prosecuted over the war in Ukraine
• Court has now reduced his sentence to 15 years, after his lawyers appealed
• They said term was harsh because he pleaded guilty and was following orders 
• Vadim Shishimarin, 21, shot dead 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in cold blood in Ukraine's northern Sumy region in the opening days of the war.

  He was later captured and brought to Kyiv for trial, where he pleaded guilty to war crimes charges back in May

  But the baby-faced killer's lawyers appealed, saying the sentence was unduly harsh given he had admitted wrongdoing and was acting on the orders of a superior.

• Today, an appeals court in the Ukrainian capital agreed and cut the penalty to 15 years. Viktor Ovsyannikov, Shishimarin's lawyer, had been asking for 10 years.

  Ovsyannikov said it is highly likely that Shishimarin will at some point be traded back to Russia in a prisoner swap. 

  Mr Shelipov had been pushing his bike along a road in the Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka when he encountered Shishimarin and men from his unit, who were riding in a stolen civilian car.

  Fearing that Mr Shelipov - a veteran of the Soviet military - was going to report their location to Ukrainian forces, Shishimarin's superiors ordered him to kill the man.

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