Finland sentences Russian paramilitary commander to life in prison for war crimes in Ukraine

A Helsinki court has sentenced Russian neo-Nazi and former paramilitary commander Yan Petrovsky to life in prison on four counts of war crimes committed in eastern Ukraine, Finnish broadcaster YLE reported on Friday. 

Also known as Voislav Torden, Petrovsky was the commander of the Rusich Group paramilitary unit, which fought alongside Russian proxy forces in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting in 2014. He was arrested in Finland at Ukraine’s request in 2023 and subsequently put on trial for war crimes after the Finnish Supreme Court refused to extradite him to Ukraine due to the risk of torture and mistreatment in Ukrainian prisons. 

The Finnish court found Petrovsky guilty of four charges, including his paramilitary group’s killing of an injured Ukrainian soldier, the mutilation of another, and taking and publishing degrading photos of dead Ukrainian servicemen. 

The court dismissed a fifth charge related to an ambush in which 22 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. As a result, claims for damages made by the relatives of the Ukrainian soldiers killed and wounded in the attack were also dismissed. 

The case marks the first time that Finland has issued a verdict for war crimes in Ukraine. Petrovsky denied all the charges and plans to appeal the ruling, his lawyer said.