The 38-year-old man was charged with a total of five war crimes in eastern Ukraine and was convicted, despite his denial, of four of them by the Helsinki District Court.
This is the first time a court in Finland has handed down a verdict for war crimes in Ukraine.
The crimes in question were committed in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine in September 2014, when Russian-backed separatists had taken control of parts of the region. According to the prosecutor, the man was the deputy commander of the Russian paramilitary force Rusich, which is notorious for its brutality and neo-Nazi ideology, and is designated as a terrorist organization in Ukraine.
The man lived under a false identity in Finland when he was arrested at Helsinki Airport in the summer of 2023, on his way to Nice, France, on vacation with his family.
He had previously resided in Norway for extended periods and is on the EU's sanctions list, according to Norwegian and Finnish media.
The Finnish verdict is being applauded in Ukraine, where the Prosecutor General's Office announces that the country will continue to work hard to bring war criminals to justice.
"This case marks an important milestone in holding accountable those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law," reads a statement from there, according to AFP.
