Finland arrests Russian ultra-nationalist wanted in Ukraine for war crimes

Finnish police have arrested Russian ultra-nationalist Yan Petrovsky, the Finnish television channel MTV3 reported on Friday.

A leader of neo-Nazi paramilitary group “Task Force Rusich,” Petrovsky is wanted in Ukraine on suspicion of committing war crimes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014–2015. According to MTV3, Kyiv has already requested Petrovsky’s extradition.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Rusich “participated in combat alongside Russia’s military in Ukraine, including near Kharkiv, in 2022.” The Department also says that Petrovsky replaced neo-Nazi Alexey Milchakov as Rusich’s commander last year, after Milchakov was injured while fighting in Ukraine.

The Russian Embassy in Helsinki told RIA Novosti on Friday that it had been informed about “the detention of a Russian national in Finland at Kyiv’s request” and that it was “taking measures to provide consular assistance.”

Update. Later on Friday, Rusich announced on its Telegram channel that the task force is halting “any combat missions” until “Slavyan” (Petrovsky) is extradited to Russia.

Petrovsky has been under U.S. and E.U. sanctions since last year.

Also known by the nickname “Veliky Slavyan” (“The Great Slav”), Yan Petrovsky is a radical Russian nationalist and one of the commanders of “Task Force Rusich,” a paramilitary group that began fighting against Ukrainian forces in the Donbas in 2014–2015.

Petrovsky, who was born in Irkutsk (Russia), moved to Norway in 2004. He was later stripped of his Norwegian permanent residence and deported in 2017.

Yan Petrovsky also featured in a 2022 Meduza investigation into the neo-Nazis fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. You can read the full investigation here.