A Finnish court is due to rule Friday on a Russian citizen accused of war crimes in Ukraine in 2014, including disfiguring a wounded Ukrainian soldier.
Vojislav Torden, a commander of the Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich, was arrested by Finnish police at the Helsinki airport in July 2023.
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Aged 38 according to Finnish media, Torden is accused of committing five war crimes in Ukraine in 2014, resulting in the deaths of 22 Ukrainian soldiers, and of seriously wounding four others, according to the charge sheet seen by AFP.
Other charges relate in particular to the barbaric methods employed by him and his fighters on this occasion.
Formerly known as Yan Petrovsky, he denied any involvement during his trial that began in December 2024.
“I didn’t fire a single shot,” he told the Helsinki district court, Finnish public broadcaster YLE reported from the trial.
He risks life in prison if convicted.
- Ambush and mutilation -
On September 5, 2014, Rusich forces ambushed a convoy of two vehicles, a truck and a car, carrying Ukrainian soldiers.
The surprise attack took place on the road between Luhansk and Shchastia, behind the positions of Ukrainian forces, in the village of Tsvitni Pisky, at a checkpoint that had previously been used by Ukrainian forces.
The Rusich fighters used the Ukrainian flag to deceive the soldiers of the battalion, making them believe the checkpoint was still under the control of Ukrainian forces.
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As the soldiers approached, they immediately opened fire on the vehicles and used a rocket launcher that set fire to the convoy, killing 21 Ukrainian soldiers.
Torden then took part in the shooting of wounded soldiers, according to the prosecution.
He also authorised the fighters under his command to mutilate Ivan Issyk by cutting the symbol used by the group -- the kolovrat, or “spoked wheel” -- into his cheek.
The emblem is often used by ultranationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Russia and Eastern Europe. Issyk died as a result of his wounds.
Finland’s supreme court had ruled that Torden could not be extradited to Ukraine, citing a risk that he could suffer inhumane conditions in prison there.
Finland applies “universal jurisdiction”, a legal principal allowing it to bring charges on its soil for suspected serious crimes committed anywhere in the world.
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