Yan Petrovsky, also known as Voislav Toden, is charged with fighting against Ukrainian forces as part of the neo-Nazi Russian unit, Rusich.
A Russian combatant who fought in Ukraine in 2014 has been charged with alleged war crimes by prosecutors in Finland.
Yan Petrovsky, who is also known as Voislav Toden, will stand trial in Helsinki for five suspected war crimes, said Finland’s National Prosecution Authority.
The suspect — who has been in custody in Finland since entering the Nordic country in July 2023 — denies involvement in the crimes.
Petrovsky has been under EU and US sanctions since 2022 for allegedly being a founding member of the far-right neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich, which is suspected of terrorism crimes in Ukraine and is connected with the Kremlin’s mercenary Wagner Group.
“The charges are related to the suspect’s activities in a unit called Rusich, which has fought on the side of the Russian-backed Luhansk separatist region against Ukraine,” Finnish prosecutors said in a statement.
In 2014, Russia went on its first invasion of Ukraine when Moscow sent its forces to Crimea and illegally annexed the peninsula within weeks. At the same time, Moscow-backed forces launched an attack on eastern Ukraine, starting a long-running armed conflict, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes and leaving thousands dead.
The two self-proclaimed so-called “people’s republics” in the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk declared unilateral independence in the same year, which hasn’t been recognised by Ukraine and the West. The Kremlin has also claimed to have annexed the temporary-occupied territories after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Petrovsky is accused of being Rusich’s deputy commander and participating in acts that violate the laws of war, according to the prosecutors. He and the unit’s soldiers are accused of killing a total of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and seriously wounding four.
Petrovsky, 37, was detained at Helsinki Airport in July 2023 as he headed for Nice in southern France with his family. He had managed to enter Finland despite a EU-wide entry ban with the help of a new identity, local media reported.
Finland’s Supreme Court in December 2023 ruled that Petrovsky cannot be extradited to Ukraine — where he faces an arrest warrant on suspicion of participating in a terrorist organisation — citing the risk of inhumane prison conditions there.
Finnish prosecutors said on Thursday that the country has an obligation to try Petrovsky.
The trial is expected to start on 5 December and last until the end of January 2025.
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