Russian Neo-Nazi suspected of war crimes in Ukraine detained in Finland
Finnish police have detained a Russian man suspected of committing terrorist crimes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine in 2014-2015, reported the Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat.
According to the newspaper , the 36-year-old man is suspected of participating in a terrorist group in the Donbas region from June 2014 to August 2015. Ukraine has requested his extradition.
The suspect's case and the extradition request will be considered by the Ita-Uusimaa district court on August 25.
Finnish TV channel MTV3 reported that the person in question is Russian war criminal Yan Petrovsky, one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi group, Rusich, which has been fighting against Ukraine since 2014.
From 2004, Petrovsky resided in Norway (previously held a residence permit, but it has expired). There, the Russian native actively participated in the activities of far-right organizations in Norway and Sweden.
Subsequently, he fought in Ukraine between 2014 and 2015, but later lived in Norway without any problems.
The Norwegian Police Security Service, PST, detained him on October 18, 2016, in Westfold only for violating immigration laws.
At that time, Kyiv requested Oslo to extradite the war criminal, but the Norwegian side ignored this request. The Russian national was deported to Russia, where he resided in St. Petersburg.
Rusich is an active group of Russian neo-Nazis, acting in Russia's interest. They fought from June 2014 to July 2015 as part of another illegal armed formation, Batman, in the Luhansk region, and then in February 2022 with the start of the full-scale invasion.
The gang was first led by Alexey Milchakov. It became known after ambushing and shooting a convoy of the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion near the settlement of Metallist on September 5, 2014. During this incident, Russian neo-Nazis tortured and killed Ukrainian captives, documenting it on video and in photos. Milchakov and Petrovsky openly admitted to committing war crimes.