A Finnish court has determined that a Russian paramilitary fighter jet committed during Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
The name Yan Petrovskiy was also accused of committing war crimes by Russian-backed troops first invading the Ukrainian army’s eastern front.
It was the first time a Finnish court had a primary sidelined lawsuit involving alleged international war crimes committed during a conflict in Ukraine. It also ruled a rare case of convictions for war crimes committed when Russian troops first arrived in Ukraine more than a decade ago. In 2022, a UN-led committee of inquiry concluded that Russian forces committed widespread atrocities in eastern Ukraine.
Torden had pleaded not guilty to five counts of committing war crimes, but a panel of three judges pleaded guilty to leading him ambushing, murder, amputation and distributing harmful images online. He was acquitted from charges related to the ambush scheme due to insufficient evidence, the court said in its ruling.
According to the US government, Tolden was a neo-Nazi militia group that fought against Russian troops and was the leader of Lucic, linked to Wagner, a Russian private military company. He and other members of the militia were approved by the United States, the European Union and other allies.
According to the US Treasury Department, Rusich Mercenaries is known to have collaborated with Russian-backed proxy forces in the Donbas region in 2015 and reappeared on the battlefield surrounding the northeastern city of Kalkiv, Ukraine in 2022.
Tolden was arrested in Helsinki in July 2023 and attempted to enter Finland under a false identity. Talden was held under Finland’s terrorist law and was later charged with international war crimes. The trial took place in Finland after citing concerns that it would not be subject to a fair trial in Ukraine after rejecting a request for extradition by Ukrainian prosecutors. Ukrainian law enforcement officials said they provided evidence to their Finnish counterparts.
“This is the first time in Finnish history a Russian citizen has been convicted of a war crime against Ukraine,” Ukrainian security forces said in a statement.
During the trial, the court heard that as Lucic’s deputy commander, Tolden led an ambush at checkpoint, killing 22 soldiers and wounding five other people. According to the court’s ruling, Rusich Militia took over the checkpoint and raised the Ukrainian flag. After the shootout, Rusich soldiers searched for Ukraine’s injuries and fatally shot at at least one of them.
Under Torden’s command, the Rusich Fighters cut off the remains of Ukrainian soldiers and engraved the Rusich symbol on his face. They then filmed the mutilated soldiers and distributed images on social media. A message from Torden says that Rusich Fighters show no mercy.
During trial, a Ukrainian soldier injured in the attack testified that he saw Toden in an ambush and recognized him with his tattoo of an ancient Slavic symbol and his weapon, a Russian-made PKM machine gun, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
In his defense testimony, Torden said he was on the scene with journalists and took part in filming propaganda videos for Russian-backed separatists. He refused to amputate the wounded soldier.
Torden will appeal the verdict and sentence, his attorney, Heikki Lampela, said.
“My client was surprised and totally furious because there was no evidence that he had given him an order to kill the injured or kill the injured,” Lampera said in a phone interview.
Torden’s other lawyer, Nataliya Malgina, told Russia’s state news agency Ria Novosti that the ruling is “politically motivated.”
AndriyŠ½ulkevych, who works for the Ukrainian prosecutor’s Office of International Legal Cooperation, described the social media ruling as “a vivid example of the function of universal jurisdiction.”
According to the Treasury Department, Toden was expelled from Norway in 2016 as a threat to national security. He took over the training of Rusich and replaced his former leader, Alexey Yurevich Milchakov, who was injured during the battle in 2022.
Alina Lobzina and Nataliia Novosolova contributed the report.
