Overview

Jan Petrovsky (call sign “Slavyan”) co-commands the Wagner-linked paramilitary formation Rusich and provides training for new recruits in the St. Petersburg area. In 2023, Petrovsky was detained in Finland for immigration violations.

Petrovsky was born on February 1, 1987, in Irkutsk, Russia, in what was then the Soviet Union. However, he spent most of his adolescence in Tonsberg, Norway. He attended college in Oslo, Norway, where he made connections with like-minded ultranationalists and began working at True Metal Tattoo. In 2011, Petrovsky met Alexey Milchakov, and they became friends and later co-commanders of the Rusich group. Petrovsky has demonstrated ties to far-right organizations such as the Soldiers of Odin in Norway and Zadrugi in Poland. In 2014, he and Milchakov joined the Batman Battalion in eastern Ukraine; their formation, Rusich, was created during this time. In 2014 and 2015, Petrovsky took part in assaults on Luhansk Airport, Donetsk, Belokamenka, and Novolaspa. As co-leaders of Rusich, Petrovsky and Milchakov gained notoriety for their ambush of the Ukrainian Aidar Battalion near the village of Metallist. After departing Ukraine in mid-2015 following the death of Batman Battalion commander Alexander Bednov, Petrovsky and Milchakov focused on expanding their network. In 2015, the group met with Jared Taylor and other far-right figures during the St. Petersburg International Conservative Forum.

Petrovsky formally joined the Wagner Group on February 8, 2017, and was assigned to a protection detail in the vicinity of Palmyra, Syria. During breaks, as social media posts show, Petrovsky posed with recruits and figures such as Alexander Borodai, the former prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and a member of Russia’s State Duma. Petrovsky has ties to other ultranationalist organizations like Zadrugi, the Nordic Resistance Movement, and the Russian Imperial Legion, which is the fighting wing of the Russian Imperial Movement. In 2022, Petrovsky’s Rusich group played a role in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, specifically in the assault on the border station at Plentenivka. Since then, the group has navigated the frontlines of the ongoing conflict, moving from one hotspot to another. During 2022–2023, Petrovsky established the intelligence-focused sub-unit Zimargl.

In 2022 and 2023, Petrovsky was sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, and Japan for committing atrocity crimes against captured Ukrainian soldiers and compromising the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.