A Finnish appeals court has reduced the life sentence of Russian national Voislav Torden, also known as Yan Petrovsky, to 12 years and six months after finding him guilty of three war crimes committed against Ukrainian soldiers in 2014.
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Torden, a former deputy commander of the far-right Rusich paramilitary group, was originally sentenced to life imprisonment by the Helsinki District Court in March 2025 after being convicted of four war crimes linked to an ambush in eastern Ukraine.
The 2014 attack took place in the Luhansk region, where Rusich fighters reportedly used a Ukrainian flag to deceive Ukrainian soldiers before opening fire. Twenty-two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the ambush. The appeals court found that Torden took part in the attack and fired a light machine gun.
However, the appeals court overturned some elements of the original conviction. Judges said there was insufficient evidence to establish that Torden personally shot wounded Ukrainian soldiers or ordered others to do so. The court also ruled that a symbol carved into the cheek of a wounded Ukrainian soldier did not meet the legal threshold for a war crime because the injury was considered superficial.
Torden has denied the charges and maintains that he was not responsible for the alleged crimes. His lawyer has indicated that the defence may seek permission to appeal the remaining conviction to Finland’s Supreme Court.
The case is significant because it represents one of Finland’s major prosecutions connected to alleged war crimes committed during Russia’s war against Ukraine, while the reduced sentence highlights the appeals court’s different assessment of the evidence.