He was immediately apprehended by Finnish border guards and then applied for asylum. According to Yle, he is now being investigated for possible war crimes and is being held in custody in the meantime.
In social media, the man has openly identified himself as a Wagner soldier, reports the media company.
He is said to have recently published videos with harsh criticism of Russia's military leadership, with accusations that they abandon soldiers and deceive the families of soldiers. The man claims, among other things, to have fought in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, where Wagner's forces have previously been linked to war crimes and executions of prisoners of war.
The Wagner group has become notorious for its brutal warfare in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine. After an armed uprising on Russian soil in the summer of 2023, followed by the death of leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a suspicious plane crash a few weeks later, the group was dissolved in its then-current form.
Finland closed its over 130-mile-long border with Russia in December 2023 and then began to erect a 12-mile-long fence against the neighboring country. The area where the Wagner soldier crossed the border, in Kides in North Karelia, consists according to Yle mainly of forest and lacks a fence.
