The Helsinki Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence against Yan Petrovsky, otherwise known as Voislav Torden, from life imprisonment to twelve and a half years. The court on 31 August 2026 found that the Finnish prosecution had not proven beyond doubt that Petrovsky himself committed one of the four impugned war crimes. It did, however, uphold the conviction with respect to three other war crimes. It also increased the sentence slightly by ordering that Petrovsky / Torden pay damages to all of the Ukrainian soldiers wounded in the ambush over which he was charged, and compensation to the families of the soldiers killed. In passing a life sentence on 14 March 2025, the Helsinki District Court had only ordered that the Russian pay compensation to the mother and sister of one of the slain soldiers.
This was the first such trial for international crimes committed in Ukraine in Finland, or indeed any other country, and the conviction and sentence, even in their reduced form, send an important message to all perpetrators of war crimes and other international crimes on Ukrainian territory.
Although Ukraine apparently provided assistance when asked, the investigation and prosecution were undertaken by Finnish prosecutors. The trial began in early December 2024, almost exactly a year after Finland’s Supreme Court ruled that Petrovsky / Torden could not be extradited to Ukraine because of the inadequate conditions in Ukrainian penitentiary institutions. Yan Igorevich Petrovsky (b. 2.01.1987) and fellow Russian neo-Nazi sadist Alexei Milchakov are co-founders of the notorious Rusich Task Force, or Rusich Sabotage and Assault Reconnaissance Group, which, after 2022, began operating as a unit of the notorious Wagner mercenary group. Petrovsky, as deputy commander of Rusich, Milchakov, as founder, and Rusich itself are all under US sanctions. Petrovsky, at least, is also under EU sanctions, with this almost certainly the reason why he was travelling under the name Voislav Torden when he was arrested, trying to enter Finland, on 20 July 2023.
Most of the war crimes charges were over the killing of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and serious wounding of four others in the ambush at a checkpoint near the city of Shchastia in Luhansk oblast on 5 September 2014. This was a deliberate and treacherous ambush, with the Russian and pro-Russian militants who had gained control of the checkpoint flying a Ukrainian flag in order to trick Ukrainian Aidar Battalion defenders and lure them to their death. It is prohibited under international law and rules of warfare to use the flag of the opposing side to carry out such ambushes.
Petrovsky / Torden was charged both with direct involvement in war crimes, and in his capacity as Rusich deputy commander. The Finnish prosecutor accused him of five war crimes: using the flag of the opposing side to carry out an ambush; the killing and maiming of wounded soldiers; desecration of the honour of a slain soldier; the announcement, on video, that there would be no mercy against Ukrainian prisoners of war.
In its ruling on 14 March 2025, the Helsinki District Court dismissed one of the charges, saying that it had not been proven that it was specifically Rusich who led the ambush on 5 September 2014. The court, however, unanimously convicted Petrovsky of the other four charges.
On 31 August 2026, the Helsinki Court of Appeal accepted that Petrovsky as deputy commander and at least two Rusich fighters had taken part in the ambush with the use (abuse) of the Ukrainian flag. Of the 22 men killed, four had been wounded. The court ruled, however, that the prosecution had not proven that Petrovsky / Torden or the Rusich fighters had shot the wounded soldiers, nor that Petrovsky, as deputy commander, was responsible for their killing.
The charge over the etching of the Rusich symbol on a wounded soldier’s cheek with a sharp object was dismissed on the grounds that the wound caused had been superficial, did not cause bleeding or last long. The incident had not caused the level of physical and psychological suffering that would warrant considering it a war crime.
The Court of Appeal did, however, agree with the prosecution and first-instance court that Petrovsky / Torden had committed a war crime when he took a photo of Alexei Milchakov posing in front of the badly charred and still burning body of a Ukrainian soldier and circulated it on social media. His announcements on social media and elsewhere that Rusich’s policy was that no prisoners would be taken prisoner and no clemency granted were also a war crime.
Petrovsky had made at least two public statements that Rusch would not take prisoners, on 26 September 2014, and on 10 June 2015. There were also numerous videos posted on the Internet, including one on a Russian broadcast where Petrovsky says that “the enemy must be destroyed and annihilated”.
Petrovsky / Torden appears to have denied even being the deputy commander of Rusich and claimed that he had been in the area only filming a propaganda recruitment video. In fact, it was reported earlier that there are witnesses, including one of the men who was less seriously wounded and not killed, so as to be used in a later prisoner exchange. He had been able to identify Petrovsky through a distinctive tattoo, as well as the specific machine gun that he used.
Petrovsky / Torden was reported after the hearing on 31 August to be planning to seek an appeal before the Supreme Court, arguing that he did not mislead the Ukrainian soldiers by flying the Ukrainian flag. It is not clear how this could be disputed, and it remains to be seen what exactly he is denying. For the moment, there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will see grounds for granting such an appeal, and the verdict has, presumably, come into force.
