Finland’s Helsinki Court of Appeal cut Russian national Voislav Torden’s term to 12 years and six months, convicting the Rusich deputy commander of three war crimes tied to 2014 fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The ruling replaced the life sentence imposed by Helsinki District Court in March 2025, when Torden was convicted on four counts. The appeal court found he fired a light machine gun toward Ukrainian troops during an ambush in which a Ukrainian flag was used deceptively. It held him partly liable as a participant in the joint attack, which killed 22 soldiers and wounded four.
The district court had dismissed the ambush count as it was then framed. After prosecutors revised the charge on appeal, the appeals court convicted Torden on that count. It did not find that he had actual command and control over his superior or two other Rusich members during the attack.
The court found that at least four wounded Ukrainian soldiers who were unable to fight were shot dead after the ambush. It acquitted Torden on that count, saying evidence did not establish that he or the two other Rusich members shot them. The judges also did not hold him responsible for those deaths as a commander.
The court acquitted Torden over a Rusich symbol pressed into a wounded soldier’s cheek, finding the injury superficial and short-lived. It upheld convictions over degrading photographs of a dead Ukrainian soldier and online statements that Rusich would show no mercy or take prisoners. The court ordered Torden to compensate soldiers wounded in the ambush and relatives of those killed.
The appeals court affirmed the lower court’s finding that the conflict in eastern Ukraine was international in character. The district court said it heard the case under treaties on the laws of war that bind Finland.
In an Oct. 21 analysis for Just Security, Candace Rondeaux and Sorcha MacLeod argued the ruling could inform future prosecutions involving Russian irregular forces. They linked the case to debate over the “overall control” test associated with the 1999 Tadić ruling; the court’s public summary did not discuss that case.
Reuters reported Aug. 31 that Torden’s lawyer, Heikki Lampela, planned to seek Supreme Court review of the ambush conviction. Reuters also reported Deputy Prosecutor General Jukka Rappe would assess the ruling before deciding whether to appeal. Just Security said its Oct. 21 analysis found no official record of a defense appeal or public notice of a prosecution cross-appeal.
