{"id":2413260,"date":"2025-03-14T16:28:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russian-mercenary-convicted-of-war-crimes-by-finnish-court\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T16:28:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T20:28:02","slug":"russian-mercenary-convicted-of-war-crimes-by-finnish-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russian-mercenary-convicted-of-war-crimes-by-finnish-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian mercenary convicted of war crimes by Finnish court"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frussian-mercenary-convicted-of-war-crimes-by-finnish-court%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2413260&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Finnish court finds Russian mercenary guilty of war crimes in Ukraine<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2038340\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>A Finnish court found a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Russian\">Russian<\/a> mercenary guilty on Friday of committing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/war-crimes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Russian\">war crimes<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Russian\">Ukraine<\/a> in 2014, sentencing him to life in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Voislav Torden, a Russian citizen known as Yan Petrovsky, was found guilty on four of five charges related to the ambush, murder, and mutilation of Ukrainian soldiers and distributing denigrating photos of the dead soldiers online. He was acquitted of a charge regarding the planning of the ambush.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3347873\/mark-carney-takes-office-canadian-prime-minister\/\">Mark Carney takes office as Canadian prime minister<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3347824\/nato-mark-rutte-russia-normal-relations\/\">NATO chief open to normal relations with Kremlin after peace: &#8216;Russia will not go away&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/premium\/3343077\/how-hamas-invented-war-crime-kinocide-attacking-jewish-family\/\">How Hamas invented a new war crime<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>It is the first time a Finnish court presided over a case involving an alleged war crime committed during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/-russia-ukraine-war\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Russia-Ukraine war<\/a>. Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014 and escalated that conflict in 2022 when it expanded those operations with the intent of conquering the whole country.<\/p>\n<p>Torden was arrested in Helsinki in July 2023, after he tried to enter Finland under a false identity. He was held under the country&rsquo;s terrorism laws and later charged with international war crimes. Finland declined an extradition request by Ukrainian prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>He was a leader of a neo-Nazi paramilitary group, Rusich, which fought alongside Russia&rsquo;s military in Ukraine&rsquo;s Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting in 2014. During his time as a deputy commander, he led an ambush at a checkpoint that killed 22 Ukrainian soldiers and injured five others in eastern Ukraine, long before Russia&rsquo;s full-scale invasion. After the firefight, one of the Rusich soldiers shot and killed a wounded Ukrainian soldier and mutilated another.<\/p>\n<p>Torden ordered Rusich fighters to carve their symbol into the face of a Ukrainian soldier.<\/p>\n<p>A surviving soldier was able to identify Torden for the court due to his distinctive tattoos of ancient Slavic symbols and the specific machine gun he was known to carry, <a href=\"https:\/\/yle.fi\/a\/74-20128968\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/yle.fi\/a\/74-20128968\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YLE<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/yle.fi\/a\/74-20128968\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/yle.fi\/a\/74-20128968\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">, <\/a>Finland&rsquo;s public broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign-policy\/3346516\/pause-us-intelligence-military-support-russia-kursk-advance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DID THE US INTEL AND MILITARY SUPPORT PAUSE LEAD TO RUSSIA&rsquo;S KURSK ADVANCE?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In defense testimony, Torden claimed he was there with a journalist and aided in the filming of propaganda videos and he denied mutilating wounded soldiers. His lawyer, Heikki Lampela, said they will appeal the court&rsquo;s ruling.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;My client was more than surprised, outright outraged, because there was no evidence that he had killed any wounded persons or given orders to kill wounded persons,&rdquo; Lampela told the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/14\/world\/europe\/russia-ukraine-war-crimes-conviction-finland.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">New York Times<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_2038340\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"2038340\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finnish court finds Russian mercenary guilty of war crimes in Ukraine A Finnish court found a Russian mercenary guilty on Friday of committing war crimes in Ukraine in 2014, sentencing him to life in prison. Voislav Torden, a Russian citizen known as Yan Petrovsky, was found guilty on four of five charges related to the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2671,"featured_media":2413261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ukraine-Russia-war-hhb142.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2413260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Ukraine-Russia-war-hhb142.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2671"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2413260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2413260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2413260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2413260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2413260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}