Finland reduces Russian neo-Nazi’s life sentence for war crimes in Ukraine
The Helsinki Court of Appeal reduced Russian national Yan Petrovsky’s life sentence to 12.5 years after convicting him of three war crimes. Petrovsky, who uses the name Vojislav Torden, had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment for four war crimes committed in Ukraine, Yle reported on Aug. 31.
Russian national Yan Petrovsky, also known as Vojislav Torden, had his life sentence reduced to 12.5 years by the Helsinki Court of Appeal after being convicted of three war crimes in Ukraine. Originally sentenced to life imprisonment in March 2025 for four war crimes, Petrovsky's conviction involved the killing of Ukrainian soldiers in 2014.
Torden appealed the charges, arguing that the evidence did not conclusively establish his personal involvement in the killings or his primary responsibility for them. The appeals court determined that Torden, a former commander of the neo-Nazi Rusich group, was not guilty of the most serious charge. In October 2024, Finnish prosecutors charged Torden with five crimes committed in eastern Ukraine in 2014, including the killing of 22 Ukrainian service members and wounding four others.
Petrovsky, who entered Finland after changing his name and obtaining a residence permit via his wife's enrollment at a Finnish university, was detained by Finnish police at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in July 2023 as he prepared to travel to France. He was under EU and U.S. sanctions and arrested in December 2023 on suspicion of war crimes.
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