Finnish prosecutors demand life sentence for the founder and former commander of the Rusich military group, Vojislav Torden (Jan Petrovsky), for committing war crimes in eastern Ukraine.
On 5 December 2024, the Helsinki District Court began hearing the case against Torden. Torden is accused of five war crimes committed in eastern Ukraine in September 2014.
This is the first time in Finland a person has been charged with war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The charges are related to Torden’s activities in the Rusich military neo-Nazi group, which fought on the side of the Russian-backed separatists of the so-called LPR.
Indictment states that, as a deputy commander, Torden gave orders and executed (by shooting) captive Ukrainian soldiers himself. The evidence mostly consists of video recordings, as the group filmed and published these videos themselves.
The prosecution is demanding a life sentence for Torden.
Torden’s lawyer, Heikki Lampela, in turn, said that Torden denies all charges of war crimes. The defense also denies that Rusich professes neo-Nazi ideology.
In February 2024, Torden was sentenced to two years in prison in Finland for violating the entry ban twice.
Torden was placed on the EU and US sanctions lists for actions that threaten Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Petrovsky has been the commander of the Rusych group since 2022.
According to U.S. officials, Petrovsky assumed primary responsibility for the command of Russian militants after mercenary Alexei Milchakov was wounded in the battle for Kharkiv in 2022.
