HELSINKI (AP) 鈥 Prosecutors in Finland filed charges Thursday over alleged war crimes in 2014 by a combatant who fought against Ukrainian forces in a Russian-backed separatist region of Ukraine.
The 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Prosecution Authority did not identify the suspect when announcing the five charges Thursday in a statement, but Finnish media outlets have identified him as Russian national Yan Petrovsky, who had been living in Finland under the alias Voislav Torden. The suspect has denied involvement in the crimes.
鈥淭he charges are related to the suspect鈥檚 activities in a unit called Rusich, which has fought on the side of the Russian-backed Luhansk separatist region against Ukraine,鈥 the Finnish prosecutors said.
Finnish media outlets have said that Petrovsky was arrested in July 2023 at Helsinki Airport as he was headed for Nice in southern France with his family. They said Petrovsky had managed to enter Finland despite a EU-wide entry ban with the help of a new identity and his wife鈥檚 student status in the Nordic country.
The suspect is "accused of having participated, as the unit鈥檚 deputy commander, in acts that violate the laws of war, in which he and the unit鈥檚 soldiers have killed a total of 22 Ukrainian soldiers and seriously wounded four," prosecutors said.
They added that the suspect is accused of 鈥渁cts contrary to the laws of war regarding the way of warfare and the treatment of wounded and killed enemy soldiers."
Finland鈥檚 Supreme Court has earlier ruled that Petrovsky cannot be extradited to Ukraine, where he faces an arrest warrant, due to the risk of inhumane prison conditions there. Finnish prosecutors said Thursday that the Nordic country has an obligation to try him.
The prosecutors said more information would be made public once the case is taken up in Helsinki District Court, unless the court decides otherwise. No date was immediately announced for the trial.
The investigation into the suspect, who earlier resided in Norway, was conducted by Finland's 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Bureau of Investigation, or NBI, and the police agency said earlier this month that it had exchanged information with Ukrainian and European officials as well as the International Criminal Court.
Petrovsky has been on the European Union鈥檚 sanctions list against Russia for allegedly being a founding member of the far-right paramilitary group Rusich, which is suspected of terrorism crimes in Ukraine and is connected with Russia鈥檚 mercenary Wagner Group,
In March 2014, . Then, separatist forces backed by Moscow began an uprising in the eastern Ukraine region known as the Donbas, which grew into a long-running conflict, leaving thousands of dead.
In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war against Ukraine that continues to this day, with tens of thousands of deaths on both sides.
