Yan Petrovsky, also known as Voislav Toden, is charged with fighting against Ukrainian forces as part of the neo-Nazi Russian unit, Rusich. A Russian combatant who fought in Ukraine in 2014 has been charged with alleged war crimes by prosecutors in Finland. Yan Petrovsky, who is also known as Voislav Toden, will stand trial in Helsinki for five suspected war crimes, said Finland’s National Prosecution Authority. The suspect — who has been in custody in Finland since entering the Nordic country in July 2023 — denies involvement in the crimes. Petrovsky has been under EU and US sanctions since 2022 for allegedly being a founding member of the far-right neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich, which is suspected of terrorism crimes in Ukraine and is connected with the Kremlin’s mercenary Wagner Group. “The charges are related to the suspect’s activities in a unit called Rusich, which has fought on the side of the Russian-backed Luhansk separatist region against Ukraine,” Finnish prosecutors said in a statement. In 2014, Russia went on its first invasion of Ukraine when Moscow sent its forces to Crimea and illegally annexed the peninsula within weeks. At the same time, Moscow-backed forces launched an attack on eastern Ukraine, starting a long-running armed conflict, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes and leaving thousands dead. The two self-proclaimed so-called “people’s republics” in the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk declared unilateral independence in the same year, which hasn’t been recognised by Ukraine and the West. The Kremlin has also claimed to have annexed the temporary-occupied territories after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
via euronews: Russian fighter accused of war crimes in Ukraine in 2014 to stand trial in Finland
siehe auch: Finland charges Russian neo-Nazi commander Petrovsky with five war crimes in Ukraine. Finnish prosecutors have charged former commander of neo-Nazi unit Rusich, Yan Petrovsky, with five war crimes committed in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Finnish outlet Yle reported on Oct. 31. The charges relate to Petrovsky’s involvement in battles in Luhansk Oblast against the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the side of the separatists.Petrovsky and other members of his group are accused of killing 22 Ukrainian soldiers and seriously injuring four others. Additionally, Petrovsky is charged with actions that violate the norms of military law regarding “the method of conducting war and the treatment of wounded and killed enemy soldiers.” The charges are being considered as international crimes under Finnish law, Yle writes. Petrovsky cannot be extradited to Ukraine. Finland’s obligation to exercise its criminal jurisdiction also takes precedence over the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the journalists added.