The Helsinki Court of Appeal has sentenced Russian citizen Yan Petrovskiy, known by the call sign "Slavyan" and the name Voislav Torden, to 12 years and six months in prison for war crimes against Ukrainian service personnel.
This was reported by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko.
The court found that Petrovskiy was deputy commander of the "Rusich" sabotage and assault group. On 5 September 2014, he took part in an ambush on Ukrainian troops in Luhansk region. During the attack, the militants unlawfully used the national flag of Ukraine, and Petrovskiy himself opened fire with a light machine gun towards the Ukrainian defenders.
As a result of the attack, 22 Ukrainian service personnel were killed and four others were wounded.
In addition, the court found that Petrovskiy took and shared on social media a degrading photograph with a dead Ukrainian soldier. He also publicly stated that members of "Rusich" would not take Ukrainian troops prisoner.
The ruling became an important example of the use of universal jurisdiction, when a court in another country considers war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine.
Ukraine provided Finnish law enforcement with materials collected as part of the criminal proceedings. With the participation of Finnish investigators, 13 interviews were conducted in Ukraine, photo and video materials were examined, and a panel forensic medical examination was carried out.
Victims and witnesses from Ukraine took part in the Finnish court hearings via video link.
The Prosecutor General stressed that the Ukrainian side will continue to use all available legal mechanisms — Ukrainian courts, international institutions and the national courts of partner states.
"There must be no safe borders and no safe jurisdictions for war criminals," Kravchenko stressed.
- Since 2007, Petrovskiy had lived in Norway. In 2017, he was stripped of his residence permit in that country and deported.
- Torden was detained in Finland in July 2023 at Ukraine’s request.
- Ukraine had previously demanded that Finland extradite Torden, but Finland’s Supreme Court ruled that the extradition request could not be granted. Helsinki then launched an investigation.