Ukrainian courts comply with all norms of national and international legislation when considering criminal cases for crimes of the invaders; the case of Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin determined the approaches to this category of proceedings, Chairman of the Supreme Court Stanislav Kravchenko said.

"Undoubtedly, Ukrainian courts comply with all norms of international legislation. Part of our Criminal Procedure Code is quotations from decisions of the European Court of Human Rights. There is also Article 9 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which determines that the norms of international conventions ratified by the state are part of national legislation," Kravchenko said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question of compliance with international standards by Ukrainian courts when considering war crimes of the occupiers.

The head of the Supreme Court noted that in the spring and summer of 2022, judges hearing cases in district and appellate courts were gathered online. "We talked about considering war cases: no matter how difficult it may be for us, we must act in strict accordance with the law, because it is extremely important that our decisions are perceived throughout the world," he said.

This approach, according to Kravchenko, has fully justified itself.

The head of the court recalled that the first case on war crimes - the Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv against Russian serviceman Shishimarin - consisted of one episode of the crime: the murder of a civilian in Sumy region. The accused occupier also admitted his guilt.

"But this decision was criticized specifically in terms of imposing the most severe sentence! The appeal determined that life imprisonment imposed by the court of first instance is an excessive punishment and changed Shishimarin's sentence to 15 years in prison," Kravchenko noted.

He drew attention to the fact that this case became an example of consideration of war cases by Ukrainian judges. "We analyzed it from all sides and are still doing so," the head of the Supreme Court said.

According to Kravchenko, such cases of war crimes are becoming more and more numerous. "In total, more than 2,000 cases of war crimes have reached the courts, 1,500 have already been considered by district courts, more than 100 cases have been reviewed on appeal, and 13 have been reviewed by the Supreme Court," he added.

"When considering such cases, no special problems arose. That is, at present we can say that we have certain developments in this category," Kravchenko said.