In Finland, one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi sabotage and assault reconnaissance group Rusich, Yan Petrovsky, known by the nickname Slavyan, was detained. This is reported by the channel MTV3.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies accuse him of crimes committed in Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014-2015. Ukraine has already sent a request for Petrovsky’s extradition.
The Russian embassy in Finland said that they were informed about the detention of a Russian at the request of Kyiv. “The consular department of the embassy is in contact with the lawyer and relatives of the detainee, takes the necessary measures to provide consular assistance,” the diplomatic mission said.
Representatives of the embassy on August 23 sent a request to the Finnish side to hold a meeting with the Russian, but, according to the diplomatic mission, “there has not yet been a response.”
“Slavyan was detained a month ago. The information was not brought to the media intentionally, in the interests of the person and the cause. Now we are making an official explanation with GRAY ZONE (a telegram channel associated with PMC Wagner),” the message says in the official telegram channel DSHRG “Rusich”.
Yan Petrovsky and Aleksey Milchakov are the leaders of the neo-Nazi group Rusich, which took part in the war in Donbas in 2014-2015 on the side of the separatists. In September 2014, near the village of Shchastya in the Lugansk region, Rusich militants defeated a column of the Aidar battalion. Milchakov, who took part in this, openly told how he was photographed with the bodies of the dead Ukrainian soldiers.
In 2016, Petrovsky was deported from Norway to Russia. The investigation into the activities of another commander of the far-right group, Aleksey Milchakov, was carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. In 2017, he was charged in absentia with the murder of 40 Ukrainian servicemen.
Rusich fighters are also taking part in the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The group and its leaders Milchakov and Petrovsky were sanctioned by the United States in September 2022 for “special cruelty” they showed during the fighting in the Kharkiv region last year. According to the US Treasury, during the first battle near Kharkov in 2022, Milchakov was wounded, after which Petrovsky took over as commander.
