Facts
Task Force Rusich is a Russian far-right paramilitary unit, established in 2014. It fought with pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donbas region of Ukraine in the first phase of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and has subsequently been linked to Russian combat operations since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The unit has developed a reputation for particular brutality and links to neo-Nazi ideology. It has reportedly been implicated in the commission of multiple war crimes, including abuses inflicted on captured and deceased Ukrainian soldiers, which have been filmed and shared on social media.
Yan Petrovsky is alleged to have served as a co-founder and commander of the unit and to have been responsible for the commission of several war crimes in the autumn of 2014 in eastern Ukraine. In 2022, he was added to the European Union and United States sanctions lists for his role in the unit.
Petrovsky initially entered Finland in August 2022. Having returned to Russia a few days later, he entered Finland again in July 2023. He is reported to have been granted a one-year residence permit, based on family ties, under the name Vojislav Torden.
Procedure
In July 2023, Petrovsky was arrested at the Helsinki airport, suspected of having violated European Union sanctions by entering the country under the name Vojislav Torden. The District Court of Helsinki ordered his detention at an immigration detention center on the basis of the Aliens Act. A procedure was also initiated to cancel his residence permit.
In August 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine requested Petrovsky’s extradition on charges of participation in a terrorist organization. In order to ensure possible extradition, the District Court of Eastern Uusimaa extended his detention.
In December 2023, the Supreme Court of Finland decided that Petrovsky could not be extradited to Ukraine due to the risk of inhumane prison conditions. Since the conditions for maintaining his detention for possible extradition were therefore no longer applicable, the Supreme Court ordered his immediate release. On the same day, the Finnish Border Guard took him back into custody on the basis of the Aliens Act.
On 15 December 2023, the Deputy Prosecutor General announced the opening of an investigation into Petrovsky’s alleged involvement in the commission of war crimes in eastern Ukraine during the period 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2015. On 18 December, the District Court of Helsinki ordered his detention while the investigation took place.
In February 2024, the District Court of Kymenlaakso sentenced Petrovsky to a 40-day suspended prison sentence for two violations of an entry ban.
In October 2024, the National Bureau of Investigation announced that it had completed its investigation into Petrovsky’s alleged involvement in war crimes in Ukraine. The investigation involved close cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities, Europol, Eurojust and the International Criminal Court.
On 31 October 2024, the Deputy Prosecutor General charged Petrovsky with five counts of war crimes. The charges relate to his alleged activities as deputy-head of the Russian paramilitary unit Task Force Rusich. According to the indictment, he was involved in the unlawful killing of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and the serious wounding of four. He is further suspected of unlawful conduct amounting to war crimes with respect to acts concerning the conduct of hostilities and the treatment of wounded and killed soldiers.
The trial started on 5 December 2024.
On 14 March 2025, the Helsinki District Court convicted Petrovsky of four counts of war crimes and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The Court established that Petrovsky was deputy commander of the unit Task Force Rusich, which participated in an attack on soldiers of the Aidar Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on 5 September 2014. Petrovsky was convicted of the war crimes of wilful killing, for participating in the killing of a wounded Ukrainian soldier, of causing great suffering and mutilation for failing to prevent, as deputy commander of the unit, the cutting of the unit’s emblem into the cheek of another soldier, of outrages upon personal dignity for distributing degrading photos of a deceased soldier and of denying quarter, for posting on social media that the unit would take no prisoners and grant no mercy. He was acquitted of the charge of making improper use of a flag for allegedly having led the operation in which the unit carried out an ambush and attack resulting in the deaths of 21 Ukrainian soldiers and the wounding of four others by using the Ukrainian flag as a decoy. The Court determined that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the unit was specifically responsible for organising and carrying out the ambush, finding that several other groups and individuals were also present.
Petrovsky was ordered to pay compensation in the amount of EUR 4 000 to the mother and EUR 3 000 to the sister of the soldier of whose killing he was found responsible.
Due to the dismissal of the charge of making improper use of a flag during an attack in which 21 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four others were wounded, civil claims for damages brought by the four injured survivors and the families of the 21 soldiers who were killed failed.
On 19 March 2025, the Deputy Prosecutor General filed an appeal against the dismissal of the fifth charge on the basis that the unit Task Force Rusisch operated closely with or was part of the larger ‘Batman’ Battalion, which was involved in organising the ambush resulting in the deaths of 21 Ukrainian soldiers and the injury of four others. Petrovsky has also appealed the conviction.