A Finnish court has sentenced Yan Petrovsky, aka. Voislav Torden, the former commander of the Russian neo-Nazi unit “Rusich,” to life in prison for war crimes committed in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Finnish media outlet Yle reported.
The Helsinki District Court found Petrovsky guilty of four war crimes committed in Luhansk in September 2014, including the killing of a Ukrainian soldier, the most serious charge. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for five war crimes, but the court dropped one charge. The court dismissed the accusation that Petrovsky, as deputy commander of “Rusich,” had directly facilitated an ambush and firefight on September 5, 2014, where combatants used a Ukrainian flag as cover. The court ruled that the presented evidence was insufficient to conclude that “Rusich” was solely responsible for planning and executing the ambush in all its aspects.
According to the court ruling, at the time of the crimes, Petrovsky was a member of “Rusich,” which took part in an armed attack on the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Aidar Battalion in Luhansk on September 5, 2014. Petrovsky was found to have participated in the killing of a Ukrainian soldier, taken and distributed degrading photos of the deceased, and publicly declared online that “Rusich” would show no mercy. During these events, he used the name Yan Petrovsky.
Other military groups and individuals were also present at the scene. During the firefight, an Aidar Battalion truck and a civilian vehicle were destroyed, five soldiers were injured, and 21 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. According to the prosecution, one wounded soldier later died from his injuries. The court also dismissed compensation claims from the families of four wounded and 22 deceased soldiers.
Petrovsky’s lawyer, Heikki Lampela, stated that his client was shocked by the verdict and would appeal. Deputy Prosecutor Jukka Rappe expressed satisfaction with the life sentence, stating that the trial demonstrated Finland’s ability to prosecute war crimes on an international level. This marks the first Ukraine war crimes conviction in Finland. Earlier, Finland refused to extradite Petrovskyy to Ukraine because of the inadequate conditions of detention in the country’s prisons. The “Rusich” unit has not yet commented on the ruling.
Antifascist Europe has previously covered Petrovsky’s escape from Russia. Yan “Slavyan” Petrovsky is an ultranationalist activist and co-founder of the neo-Nazi paramilitary group “Rusich.” Born in Irkutsk, Russia, he moved to Norway in 2004, where he gained residency and worked as a tattoo artist. In 2014, he traveled to Donbas and joined Alexei “Fritz” Milchakov’s “Rusich” unit under the alias “Veliky Slavyan.” Norway revoked his residency and deported him to Russia in 2016. He later obtained new Russian documents under the name Voislav Torden and acquired Finnish residency through his marriage to a Finnish university student. Finnish authorities arrested him on July 20, 2023, as he was preparing to board a flight to Nice, France.
