Finnish court hands life sentence to Russian militant for war crimes in Ukraine

Under the Helsinki skies, a Finnish court handed down a life sentence to Yan Petrovsky on Friday, a former commander of the Russian far-right Rusich paramilitary group, for his involvement in war crimes in eastern Ukraine (via Reuters).

Petrovsky, also known as Voislav Toden, was found guilty of four out of five charges connected to his group's actions in Luhansk in 2014. Among the war crimes committed, his unit was responsible for killing a wounded Ukrainian soldier and mutilating another.

Rusich, operating alongside the Russian Wagner mercenary group, was implicated in these acts, part of Moscow's anti-Kyiv insurgency. Despite his denials and intentions to appeal, the court rejected the idea of a fixed-term sentence, opting instead for a life sentence.