The Russian citizen was sentenced to life in prison by a Finnish court in 2014 for committing a war crime in eastern Ukraine.
Voislav Torden, 38, a senior member of the Russian far-right mercenary group, was found guilty of four counts in a court in the Finland capital, Helsinki, on Friday.
The charges are linked to ambush and firefights that took place in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, killing 22 Ukrainian soldiers and wounding four. Torden denies the allegation.
This is the first time that Finnish court has been asked about allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.
Torden, formerly known as Yan Petrovsky, was a founding member of Rusich. It was run in the East Donbas region as part of the pro-a separatist battle with Ukraine. Rusich is a subunit of the Wagner Group.
On September 5, 2014, Tolden is said to have led his men as part of an ambush of Ukrainian soldiers by pretending to be a Ukrainian.
Twenty-one Ukrainian troops were killed and five more were injured, the indictment said.
The Helsinki court found that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that Rusich is particularly responsible for Ambush’s responsibility, as several other groups were involved.
However, it turns out that Torden is guilty of all other counts, including that he was in charge of the Rusich mercenary who existed in an ambush that killed at least one Ukrainian soldier and wounded another.
It was also found that his subordinates had amputated the injured soldier by “making a symbol of the Rusich group on his face.”
Torden has distributed “disassembly” images of soldiers and found out that Rusich posted on social media saying “no mercy.”
A panel of three judges unanimously found him found guilty of the latter four counts, and wrote that the most serious thing about killing a soldier was “compared to murder because of its cruelty and atrocities.”
The court found that there was insufficient evidence to determine that he was responsible for the deaths of 21 other Ukrainian soldiers, but ordered compensation to the families of the soldiers he was responsible for.
According to Finnish public broadcasters, Tolden has consistently denied allegations that have placed a level against him. According to the national newspaper Ilta-Sanomat, he intends to oppose the conviction.
Toden’s lawyer, Hake Lampera, said the verdict surprised them.
“There was no evidence that he either killed the injured or issued an order to do so,” he told YLE, a public Finnish broadcaster.
Talden was arrested at Helsinkivanta Airport in July 2023 at the request of the Ukrainian government, and attempted to hand him over.
That request was rejected by the Finland Supreme Court for concerns that he would not be subject to a fair trial in Ukraine, but he was still able to be tried in Helsinki as he was charged with a crime under international law.
YLE reports similar accusations are domestically related to conduct in countries, including Rwanda and Iraq.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office welcomed the court’s ruling as a “significant milestone” in retaining perpetrators of “accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law.”
Ukrainian officials assured the courts had heard from Ukrainian victims and witnesses during the trial, adding that they would continue to work with their partners internationally to “ensure that war criminals are not exempt from them.”
