Finland to try Russian neo-Nazi Rusich mercenary for war crimes in Ukraine

Finland’s Deputy Prosecutor General Jukka Rappe announced on 31 October that Yan Petrovsky, a Russian neo-Nazi and the co-founder of the notorious Rusich ‘sabotage-assault reconnaissance group’ is to go on trial in Finland on war crimes charges.

That’s according to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Ukrinform reports.

Petrovsky’s trial is due to begin at the beginning of December 2024, almost exactly a year after the Finish Supreme Court ruled that he could not be extradited to Ukraine due to the unsatisfactory conditions in Ukrainian penitentiary institutions, the report reads.

Petrovsky is accused as the deputy commander of the openly far-right and neo-Nazi Rusich unit which fought for Russia and its proxy ‘Luhansk people’s republic. He and other Rusich members are accused of having killed 22 Ukrainian soldiers and wounded four others.

Petrovsky co-founded Rusich together with neo-Nazi sadist Alexei Milchakov.  The latter has consistently boasted of his Nazi views, and has never hidden the fact that he, and his men, were decked out in Moscow and were paid to kill Ukrainians.

This is the first time that Finland is to prosecute for war crimes committed in Ukraine.  Petrovsky is charged with actions which infringe the norms of warfare with respect to methods and treatment of wounded and slain Ukrainian soldiers. It remains to be seen what specific crimes make up the indictment, but Rappe has said that the trial will consider video footage from events in Ukraine and the witness testimony of survivors.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, European Commission officials said in a joint statement that ournalists deployed in the zones of hostilities remain civilians therefore international law recognizes deliberate attacks against them as a war crime.