Finland finds Russian mercenaries guilty of war crimes in Ukraine

A court in Finland found a Russian paramilitary fighter, guilty of war crimes committed during the first invasion of Russia, Ukraine, and sentenced to him on Friday.

He was charged with Voislav Torden, a Russian citizen named Yan Petrovskiy, with war crimes to lead an ambush of Ukrainian soldiers in 2014, when Russian -backed forces first invaded the Eastern Front of Ukraine, according to court ruling.

This was the first time that a court in Finland has presided over a case that involves The alleged international war crime committed during the conflict in Ukraine, and a rare example of the condemnation of the war crimes that were conducted when Russian forces crossed for the first time to Ukraine more than a decade ago. In 2022, the United Nations -led investigation committee conclude The Russian forces committed widespread atrocities in eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Tordan acknowledged that he was not guilty of five charges of war crimes, but a committee of three judges condemned him unanimously in commanding ambush, killing, distorting and distributing harmful photos via the Internet. In its decision, the court said, he was acquitted of a charge linked to the ambush planning due to insufficient evidence.

Mr. Torden was the leader of Russiac, a new Nazi militia group fought alongside the Russian army and associated with Wagner, the Russian Special Military Company, According to the United States government. He and other members of the militia were punishment By the United States, as well as the European Union and other allies.

It is known that Russian mercenaries fought along with Russian -backed agent forces in the Donbas region in 2015, and it appeared again on the battlefield surrounding the northeastern city of Kharkif in Ukraine in 2022, according to the US Treasury.

Mr. Torden was arrested in Helsinki in July 2023, when he tried to enter Finland under a fake identity. Torden was held under terrorist laws in Finland and later directed to international war crimes. The trial was held in Finland after the country’s Supreme Court rejected a request for delivery by Ukrainian prosecutors, noting fears that he would not receive a fair trial in Ukraine.

During the trial, the court heard how Mr. Torden, as a commander in Rusich, led an ambush at a checkpoint, killing 22 soldiers and wounding five others. Rossic’s militia acquired the checkpoint, as it was flying the Ukrainian flag, according to the court ruling. After the firefighting battle, Rossic soldiers looked at the injury of Ukraine, and they shot at least one.

Under the leadership of Torden, Rusich fighters distorted the body of a Ukrainian soldier, and carved the Rusich icon in the face. Then they photographed the distorted soldier, and distributed the photos on social media, with a message from Mr. Torden, saying that Rusich fighters did not show any mercy.

During the trial, the Ukrainian soldier, who was wounded in the attack, witnessed that he saw Mr. Torden in an ambush, recognized by the tattoo from the old Slavic symbols and his favorite weapons, a Russian PKM machine gun, manufactured by PKM,, According to Finland’s public broadcaster, Yale.

In the defense certificate, Mr. Torden said he was at the scene of the accident with a journalist and participated in filming videos of the propaganda of the Russian separatist forces. He denied distorting the wounded soldiers.

His lawyer, Hikki Lambella, said that Mr. Tordan is planning to appeal the verdict and the ruling.

“My client was more amazing and fully angry, because there was no evidence that he had killed anyone wounded or gave orders to kill the injured people,” Mr. Lambella said in an interview on a phone.

Natalia Maljina, the other lawyer of Mr. Tordan, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency that the ruling was “politically driven.”

Mr. Torden was expelled from Norway in 2016 as a threat to national security, according to the Ministry of Treasury. Rossic was trained to replace his former leader, Alexei Yulvic Milchakov, who was injured during the fighting in 2022.