Russian fighter accused of war crimes in Ukraine in 2014 to stand trial in Finland

A Russian fighter who fought in Ukraine in 2014 has been charged with alleged war crimes by prosecutors in Finland.

Yan Petrovsky, also known as Voislav Toden, will stand trial in Helsinki for five alleged war crimes, Finland’s National Prosecuting Authority said.

The suspect – who has been in custody in Finland since entering the Nordic country in July 2023 – denies involvement in the crimes.

Petrovsky is subject to EU and US sanctions from 2022 for allegedly being a founding member of the far-right neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich, which is suspected of terrorist crimes in Ukraine and linked to the Kremlin’s mercenary Wagner Group.

“The charges are related to the suspect’s activities in a unit called Rusich, which fought on the side of the Russian-backed separatist Luhansk region against Ukraine,” Finnish prosecutors said in a statement.

In 2014, Russia began its first invasion of Ukraine when Moscow sent its forces into Crimea and illegally annexed the peninsula within weeks. At the same time, Moscow-backed forces launched an attack on eastern Ukraine, sparking a long-running armed conflict, forcing tens of thousands from their homes and leaving thousands dead.

The two self-proclaimed so-called “people’s republics” in the Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk declared unilateral independence in the same year, which was not recognized by Ukraine and the West. The Kremlin also claimed to have annexed territories temporarily occupied after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Petrovsky is accused of being Rusich’s second-in-command and participating in acts that violate the laws of war, according to prosecutors. He and the unit’s soldiers are accused of killing a total of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and seriously wounding four.

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Petrovsky, 37, was detained at Helsinki airport in July 2023 while traveling with his family to Nice in southern France. He managed to enter Finland, despite an EU entry ban, with the help of a new identity, local media reported.

In December 2023, Finland’s Supreme Court ruled that Petrovsky could not be extradited to Ukraine – where he faces an arrest warrant on suspicion of participating in a terrorist organization – citing the risk of inhumane prison conditions there.

Finnish prosecutors said Thursday that the country had an obligation to try Petrovsky.

The trial is expected to begin on December 5 and last until the end of January 2025.