The Helsinki District Court in Finland on March 14 sentenced a 38-year-old man to life for committing war crimes in Ukraine. Voislav Torden, 38, a Russian-Norwegian better known as Yan Petrovskiy, was deputy commander of a neo-Nazi paramilitary unit called Rusich, which participated in Russia’s first incursions into Ukraine in 2014. According to prosecutors, Petrovskyi was responsible for leading an attack on Ukraine’s eastern frontier, which left approximately 20 Ukrainian troops dead. Petrovskyi was accused of ordering his men to carve Rusich’s emblem into the chest of a wounded Ukrainian soldier. He was also charged for posing with a dead soldier’s body for photos, which were later uploaded to social media.
Section 7, Chapter 1 of Finland’s Penal Code states that Finnish courts may “reach over” even to acts committed outside of the country, if the offense is based on an international agreement binding on Finland. This is otherwise known as “universal jurisdiction.” Finland ratified the 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of war prisoners in 1955.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General saluted the conviction, and stated that the case marks a milestone for holding perpetrators of war crimes accountable. The Finnish Security & Intelligence Service (SUPO) has warned that the conviction could be dangerous for Finns in Russia, as they could be used as leverage in exchange for Petrovskyi.
In 2022, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Rusich a threat to the peace and national security of the United States and its allies. The designation states that Rusich members were accused of and filmed committing atrocities against deceased and captured Ukrainian soldiers.
Petrovskyi was expelled from Norway in 2016, after having lived there since 2004, for being a threat to the country’s national security. He was arrested in Finland in July 2023, when Ukraine demanded he be extradited there.
The demand was rejected by the Finland Supreme Court, due to concerns over rights violations in the Ukrainian prison system. Human rights violations were evident during the 2014 attack on Ukraine. According to an investigation by Amnesty International, there was “no doubt” that summary killings were executed by both sides in the conflict.
These concerns were also raised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which reported a number of human rights violations, such as killings and torture, throughout the 2014 conflict.
War prisoners must be accorded humane treatment under articles 13, 14, and 15 of the Geneva Convention “Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” of 1949. Since 2014, numerous war crimes have been alleged in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In a 2020 statement concerning the conclusion of the preliminary examination of the situation in Ukraine, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court stated that there was “a reasonable basis” to conclude that there was a broad range of conduct amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the court.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine stated last year that Russia’s continuing breaches of international humanitarian law are causing severe civilian suffering. The Commission also found new evidence of war crimes committed by Russia.
From JURIST, March 16. Used with permission.
See our last reports on Rusich, Russia’s paramilitary network, and war crimes accusations against Russia.
Photo: Yan Petrovsky (right) with Rusich founder Alexei Milchakov
Credit: KHPG
