The man is now being sought by Ukraine on war crimes charges that date back to the early stages of the Donbass conflict
FILE PHOTO. Police stands guard at the Russian Embassy in Helsinki. © AFP / Lehtikuva / Jussi Nukari
Russian national Voislav Torden has been arrested in Finland and is now being sought by Ukraine on criminal charges, the Russian embassy in Helsinki said on Saturday.
Torden, previously known as Yan ‘Slavyan’ Petrovsky, was originally detained in Finland back in July, as he attempted to travel through the country to Nice, France. The Russian national, who holds a Finnish residence permit, was held on suspicion of “violating migration rules” and has been kept in a migrant detention center, the embassy explained, noting that he had not requested consular access or any help from the Russian authorities.
Earlier this week, however, he was placed under arrest and transferred to jail after Ukraine declared that it was seeking his extradition on criminal charges. In light of this, he contacted Russian diplomats and a consular visit is now expected in a matter of days, the embassy said.
While the Russian mission did not elaborate on the nature of the charges Torden is facing in Ukraine, media reports suggested they are related to war crimes he allegedly committed in 2014-15 during the early stages of the conflict in then-Ukrainian Donbass.
Born in 1987 in the Soviet Union, Torden had resided in Norway since the early 2000s. The Russian national was already closely associated with far-right groups and was briefly detained during a police raid on a tattoo parlor that served as a neo-Nazi hideout.
When the conflict in Eastern Ukraine broke out in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup, he traveled to Donbass, joining the paramilitary group Rusich. The Ukrainian authorities have accused the unit of war crimes, while its members have repeatedly shared combat footage online of themselves posing by slain Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Kiev far-right militants.
Torden lost his Norway residency permit back in October 2016 and was deported to Russia. It was not immediately clear when exactly he changed his name to Voislav Torden, as he was targeted by US and EU sanctions under his original name. It was also unclear when he obtained a Finnish residence permit and whether he actually lived in the country before his July arrest.
The Rusich group was primarily active in Donbass between 2014 and 2015, when it announced that it was ending its operations, although it reportedly re-emerged with the beginning of the ongoing full-blown conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
