A Finnish court on Monday reduced the life sentence handed to a Russian neo-Nazi convicted of war crimes to 12 years and six months on charges stemming from a 2014 ambush in Ukraine.
Vojislav Torden, a former deputy commander of the Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group Rusich, had been found guilty in Helsinki last year of war crimes committed during the ambush in the Lugansk region of eastern Ukraine.
The attack on a convoy of Ukrainian soldiers left 22 Ukrainians dead and four injured.
Torden had been found guilty of leading the actions of Rusich's soldiers during the ambush and of killing one wounded soldier.
He was also found guilty of authorising fighters to mutilate Ivan Issyk by cutting the symbol used by the group -- the kolovrat, or "spoked wheel" -- into his cheek. Issyk died as a result of his wounds.
Torden was also found guilty of having taken derogatory photos of a fallen soldier at the scene and posting them to social media.
However the Helsinki Court of Appeal on Monday found there was insufficient evidence showing Torden had killed or wounded the Ukrainian soldiers.
It did find he had participated in the ambush and had fired a light machine gun at Ukrainian soldiers, which constituted a war crime.
It also said he had not held a superior role "responsible for the shooting of the wounded Ukrainian soldiers," according to the court's statement.
However, the Court of Appeal dismissed the earlier finding that he had authorised fighters to cut into Issyk's cheek, finding that while the incident had taken place it did not rise to the level of war crime.
The court agreed that Torden was guilty of having taken derogatory photos of a fallen soldier at the scene and posting them to social media.
Torden was tried in Finland after having been arrested there, and after Helsinki refused to extradite him to Ukraine.
Finland applies "universal jurisdiction", a legal principle allowing it to bring charges on its soil for suspected serious crimes committed anywhere in the world.
The Court of Appeal's judgment can be appealed at the Supreme Court.
