On August 25, it became known about the detention in Finland of Yan Petrovsky, a Russian militant, one of the founders of the Saboteur Assault Reconnaissance Group (DShRG) "Rusich" - one of the most famous neo-Nazi formations in the service of the Kremlin. This is a good occasion to recall the history of this unit, as to revitalize information about all the war crimes committed by the Rusich unit.
What do we know about Petrovsky's detention?
According to Grey Zone, a telegram channel associated with the Wagner PMC, Jan Petrovsky was detained on July 20 at Helsinki airport for "violation of migration laws. Petrovsky lived in Norway from 2004 to 2017, but in October 2016, the Norwegian government decided to revoke his residence permit and deport him to Russia.
The reason could be Petrovsky's participation in 2014-2015 in the aggression against Ukraine. At that time, he and a group of other Russian neo-Nazis fought as part of an illegal armed group operating in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, under the command of a militant named "Batman" - Alexander Bednov, the founder of the "Batman Rapid Response Group," who briefly served as the so-called Minister of Defense of the terrorist group "Luhansk People's Republic".
Petrovsky, source: Molfar
Petrovsky lived with Norwegian right-wing activist Ronny Bordsen. Petrovsky had also previously been in trouble with the law in Norway. In September 2010, police raided True Metal Tattoo, where Petrovsky worked. They found weapons, forged documents and military equipment, and Petrovsky and his coworkers were detained. The investigation revealed that the weapons belonged to Russian neo-Nazi Vyacheslav Datsik, who had recently escaped from a psychiatric clinic near St. Petersburg, where he had been placed under a court sentence, and had turned up in Norway, seeking political asylum there. Petrovsky, who spent a month under investigation, was eventually found not guilty and released.
However, this only indicates that Petrovsky was part of a neo-Nazi network of both local Norwegians and Russian migrants.
After fighting from 2014 to July 2015, Petrovsky, as well as most of the other members of the Rusich DShRG, left the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The reason was a conflict between their chief, Alexander "Batman" Bednov, and the occupation administration in Luhansk. In January, Bednov was killed under strange circumstances. According to media reports, his convoy was shot at with automatic rifles, grenade launchers and rocket-propelled flamethrowers. Bednov's body was found in an armored minibus, and five escort soldiers traveling with him were also killed. Even in the Russian media, the militants of the Batman formation blamed the murder on the puppet leader of the region, Plotnitsky, who was appointed by Russia. Six months after the assassination, Rusich left the region.
Petrovsky continued to live in Norway until 2017. However, fearing his combat experience and radical views, Norwegian authorities first revoked his gun license and then deported him altogether, calling his ties to neo-Nazis "a threat to important national interests".
According to the Finnish media, Jan Petrovsky was able to obtain documents in the name of Vojislav Torden, with the help of which he entered Finland, because under the name of Jan Petrovsky he is on the sanctions lists of the EU and a number of countries. It is reported that the reason was "violation of migration law". The detention itself took place on July 20 or July 21 he was taken into custody, it became known only a month later.
On August 25, it was decided to extend his detention of the Russian citizen. In the process of consideration of the case in court it became known that Voislav Torden plans to apply for asylum in Finland. Information about this was disclosed by his lawyer.
Russian diplomats shared information that Finnish border guards detained him when Torden-Petrovsky was trying to fly to Nice. He was then placed in a temporary accommodation facility, where, according to the diplomats, "stay, including those who have applied for asylum." Telegram channels associated with the militants, however, claim that the visit was only short-term - Petrovsky's wife had to solve some questions about education.
Ukraine is currently pushing for Petrovsky's extradition, where he is accused of crimes committed in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014-2015.
"Rusich" - the Kremlin's Nazis
Open sources point to 2009 as the year when the community of future Rusich fighters was formed. At that time, the well-known Russian neo-Nazi Alexei Milchakov formed a kind of training base for Russian nationalists. In the 2000s, Milchakov was a member of the St. Petersburg branch of the neo-Nazi organization Slavic Union. He served in the Russian Airborne Troops.
In 2011, during a visit to Russia, Jan Petrovsky also met Milchakov. They agreed on extreme right-wing views, trained together and went hunting. At that time, Milchakov started having problems. In particular, his acquaintances published photos where the Nazi brags about dismembering dogs. After the scandal, which aroused the attention of many animal rights activists, there was an attempt to initiate criminal proceedings against Milchakov under Article 245 of the Russian Criminal Code "Cruel Treatment of Animals", but later the criminal case was officially dismissed, with the wording "lack of corpus delicti".
They link this to the fact that the Milchakov group may well have been training under the auspices of the Russian security services, who chose not to notice either the photos of animal killings or the many images of Milchakov with swastikas.
The Ukrainian publication Bukvy has already pointed out that despite its status as a volunteer unit, the Rusich DShRG was staffed by members of the GROM special unit, which is part of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service. This special unit, according to Russian law, can be used for special operations, including those abroad. For example, Konstantin and Boris Voyevodina, both GROM soldiers, fight in Rusich and openly wear the insignia of their formation, along with Rusich chevrons. Both are not shy about their right-wing views either.
Milchakov, having gathered a group of like-minded people, including Petrovsky, crossed the border with Ukraine on the night of June 21-22, presumably in a section of Donetsk Oblast not controlled by the Ukrainian army. The Russian nationalists' Internet resource Sputnik i Pogrom described in detail the route of the group, which, having reached occupied Luhansk, came under the control of the previously mentioned Alexander "Batman" Bednov.
Notably, Milchakov's ID in the "Batman" grouping was listed under the number 1488, the symbol of the neo-Nazis.
War crimes of Petrovsky and Milchakov
Rusich took part in the battles for Luhansk airport, for the city of Schastia, Stanytsia Luhanska. However, this is the case when a unit becomes known not because of its effectiveness, but because of war crimes.
Ukrainian and world media became aware of the name "Rusich" after the ambush on a column of Ukrainian military on September 5, 2014. The Rusich group, including Milchakov and Petrovsky, attacked a convoy of the 24th separate assault battalion Aidar near Metalist, Luhansk region.
First, the battle took place on the day of the signing of the so-called Minsk protocol, which provided for the establishment of a ceasefire regime. Rusich members entered the territory controlled by the Ukrainian military and, contrary to the agreements, set up an ambush.
Secondly, Ukrainian military personnel who were ambushed were shot, including wounded and prisoners.
In 2015, Ukrainian journalist Serhiy Ivanov published a Skype video of a female soldier of the Ukrainian Aidar battalion communicating with Milchakov, who offered her a date and apparently did not suspect that he was being recorded at the time. He directly confessed to the execution of the prisoners, moreover, he indicated that it was Petrovsky, whom he calls by his callsign - "Slavyanin", who played an active role in this.
"And then two more APCs drove off, and one shot from a PTRS in the windshield killed the driver, and he drove off to Slavyan in the ditch, and Slavyan and another man - well, in fact, the three of them killed him. With the whole troop. There were at least eleven people," Milchakov boasted.
Then Petrovsky himself joined the conversation and confirmed that he had killed the wounded Ukrainians:
"No one survived there, everyone was killed, burned and killed. Six more of them came out, who managed to make it. They finished them all off. No one was left alive."
Milchakov later added: "I don't take prisoners."
The Rusich DShRG is particularly active on social networks, where it does not hesitate to publish photos and videos of its crimes. After the ambush on the Aidar battalion convoy on September 5, the criminals and Rusich bragged about the massacre they had organized that day. For example, Milchakov took a photo with the severed ear of a Ukrainian military officer. He later deleted it from his VK page, but Ukrainian journalists managed to save the original. In another photo, he shows how he finished off a Ukrainian military officer with a shot to the head.
Petrovsky, on the other hand, took photos with the charred bodies of dead military men.
Milchakov and Petrovsky
Milchakov's Twitter account @DSHRG_Rusich posted a photo of what it claimed to be dead Ukrainian military personnel near the town of Debaltsevo. Each of them has their faces completely cut off.
Similarly, during the ambush on Aidar, Milchakov, Petrovsky and their underlings carved the Rusich symbol of the Kolovrat, a type of swastika used by Russian nationalists and neo-Nazis, into the faces of the slain military men.
Such actions have been taken repeatedly. The mother of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier Ivan Isyk told about her son who died in the captivity of mercenaries on 14 September. After the Ukrainian side managed to obtain the body of the serviceman, the autopsy showed a huge number of tortures. The autopsy showed that the military man had his organs cut out, which were sewn back up after a while. He had a piece of Ukrainian flag in his throat. A symbol of Rusich bandits was carved on the face of Ivan, who was still alive.
Although after leaving the occupied territories of Ukraine in 2015, Milchakov and his gang promised that they would never return to fight in Ukraine again, in 2022 the criminals again decided to try their luck as mercenaries in the occupied territories. According to one version, Milchakov's group became part of the mercenaries of PMC Wagner. They probably joined the private military company Wagner in 2017, after which they were transferred to the Middle East to participate in the war on the side of the government forces of Bashar al-Assad.
Milchakov in Syria
As before, the Rusich gang once again became known exclusively for war crimes.
Today, the Rusich page in Telegram has about 120,000 subscribers. There, war criminals not only exchange news, but also publish their photos and videos. In September 2022, after the exchange of servicemen from the Mariupol garrison, mercenaries from Rusich called on the Russian occupants not to inform the leadership about the prisoners of war, but instead to interrogate them themselves, kill them, and then sell their bodies to their relatives.
"It is desirable that everyone takes part in this (in the killing of prisoners of war), so that in the future the secrecy of what happened will be respected... Do not be afraid to kill prisoners!" the mercenaries' manual says. - says the mercenaries' manual.
In 2017, Ukrainian prosecutors accused Milchakov of involvement in the murder of at least 40 Ukrainian citizens. His friend Yan Petrovsky, in turn, has been wanted by the Security Service of Ukraine since 2016 on charges of creating a terrorist organization.
Sadism and nothing more
Some may be puzzled by such behavior of combatants. But the reason is simple - Rusich mercenaries are ordinary sadists who enjoy inflicting torture and pain.
Milchakov said in an interview that he enjoys "the smell of burning human meat."
According to the Novaya Gazeta investigation, they tortured the captives with fire and carved neo-pagan symbols and runes on their faces with blades. After interrogation, Ukrainians were usually executed. Moreover, such treatment of the enemy was elevated to an ideology. The commander of the DShRG, Alexei Milchakov, openly stated that captured soldiers should be killed, and if there was time, it should be done slowly.
Another mercenary, neo-Nazi Eduard Rasskazov, wrote in his social networks that torture and murder in general give him an erection. In his Telegram channel, he posted a voice message where he confessed to raping and killing a captured Ukrainian servicewoman.
Rasskazov in Ukraine, source: Molfar
It is unlikely that Milchakov, Petrovsky or their associates could have remained off the radar of Russian law enforcement for mercenarism and extremism for so long if they had not had the patronage of the authorities.
Both Milchakov and Petrovsky have repeatedly served as experts for the propaganda publications Lifenews and Russia Today. In addition, they were active members of the "Union of Donbas Volunteers" organization, which united several thousand different mercenaries and terrorists from Russia who fought in Ukraine. This organization is considered a partner of the ruling United Russia party, which has promised to nominate the militants for local deputies. In particular, at one of the meetings, Milchakov posed with the occupier-appointed head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov.
Aksyonov and Milchakov
Russian State Duma deputy Anatoly Wasserman, who actively supports the war in Ukraine, sent a request to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia in July 2022 asking for an inspection of Rusich and Milchakov personally because of possible war crimes committed by DShRG mercenaries. The results of the check, if it was conducted at all, are unknown. Most likely, the request was left unnoticed.
Today Ukraine is seeking the extradition of Yan Petrovskyy. Petrovskyy, like his associates, is responsible for torture and executions in Ukraine. It is hardly necessary to prove that the actions of Rusich and its commanders should be qualified as war crimes. At the same time, there is no point in proving Petrovsky's involvement in them, who never hid them, moreover, bragged about them whenever possible.
Today Finland's justice system has the opportunity to extradite a dangerous war criminal who previously traveled around Europe with impunity, maintaining contacts with various extremists and neo-Nazis.
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