Finnish court commutes sentence of former commander of “Rusich” for war crimes in Ukraine

An appeals court in Finland has commuted the sentence of former commander of the “Rusich” group, Vojislav Torden (Jan Petrovsky), for war crimes in Ukraine. The life sentence was reduced to 12.5 years in prison.

This is reported by the Finnish media Yle.

Torden is a co-founder of the Russian Nazi group “Rusich”, which fought in Ukraine on the side of Russian-backed militants and later the Russian army. He and Rusich fighters are accused of killing a total of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and seriously wounding four in the fall of 2014.

In March last year, the Helsinki District Court sentenced Vojislav Torden to life imprisonment for four war crimes committed in 2014. According to the district court, the most serious crime was the murder of a Ukrainian soldier.

Torden demanded that the charges be dropped or at least the sentence be commuted. The prosecutor demanded that Torden be punished for five war crimes.

Ultimately, the Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence in the case did not conclusively establish that Thorden personally shot the wounded Ukrainian soldiers or that he could be held primarily responsible for this. However, the court acknowledged that he was at least partially responsible as a participant in the events.

The appeal also did not recognize the carving of the symbol of the Rusych group on the cheek of one of the Ukrainian fighters as a war crime. The court concluded that it was only a shallow wound without bleeding and a short-term injury to the cheek. Therefore, the court decided that these actions did not cause severe physical or psychological suffering and cannot be considered a war crime.

• "Rusich" is a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group that is fighting alongside the Russian military in Ukraine. Yan Petrovsky became the commander of "Rusich" after his predecessor, neo-Nazi Oleksiy Milchakov, was wounded. Petrovsky faces 8 to 15 years in prison in Ukraine.
• Petrovsky was caught in Finland in July 2023 and identified by border guards. Since he is on the EU sanctions list under his former name, Jan Petrovsky, he was banned from entering Finland. He denied that he had intentionally violated the law, believing that the entry ban had already expired.
• Ukraine sought Petrovskyʼs extradition, but the Finnish Supreme Court rejected Kyivʼs request due to the conditions of prisoners in Ukrainian colonies. After that, Finnish authorities began their own investigation against him.

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