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Russian War Criminal Torden Seeks Lighter Sentence in Finland After Life Term Cut to 12.5 Years
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A former commander of Russia’s neo-Nazi Rusich paramilitary group, Voislav Torden, also known as Yan Petrovsky, is seeking a further reduction in his prison sentence in Finland after an appeals court overturned his life sentence for war crimes committed against Ukrainian soldiers.
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According to Finnish public broadcaster Yle on November 9, Torden has requested permission to appeal the Helsinki Court of Appeal’s ruling, which reduced his punishment to 12 years and six months in prison in August 2026.
Torden was originally sentenced to life imprisonment by the Helsinki District Court in March 2025 after being convicted on four war crimes charges related to his involvement in fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
The case centered on a September 2014 ambush involving fighters from the Russian Rusich group and Ukrainian troops from the Aidar Battalion in the Luhansk region. The attack left 22 Ukrainian soldiers dead and four wounded.
The original court found Torden responsible for participating in the attack, killing a Ukrainian soldier, and distributing photographs of the victim.
However, the Helsinki Court of Appeal subsequently dismissed one of the four charges and reduced his sentence.
The appeals court determined that Torden had fired a machine gun at Ukrainian soldiers during the ambush, constituting a war crime. However, judges found insufficient evidence to establish that Torden or two other Rusich members had personally shot wounded Ukrainian servicemen.
The court also rejected allegations related to the carving of the Rusich group’s symbol into a Ukrainian soldier’s cheek, concluding that the injury did not meet the legal threshold for a war crime.
Judges further ruled that Torden could not be held criminally responsible as a commander for the execution of wounded Ukrainian soldiers, although they acknowledged his partial responsibility for the actions. Torden has denied all charges against him.
The Russian national was arrested at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in July 2023 while attempting to travel to Nice, France. Finnish authorities identified him despite his use of documents issued under the name Voislav Torden.
Ukraine subsequently requested his extradition, but Finland’s Supreme Court rejected the request, citing concerns over detention conditions in Ukrainian prisons.
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