A court in Moscow has issued a in absentia verdict against Dnipro's mayor, Filatov.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow has issued a verdict in absentia against the mayor of Dnipro, Boris Filatov, for allegedly spreading "fake news about the Russian army and inciting hatred," reports "Vedomo" citing "Ukrainian Truth".

The sentence is 9 years of imprisonment. The Investigative Committee of Russia stated that the case of "inciting hatred" relates to a "message calling for the killing of Russians," which Filatov published in April 2022 on Facebook and his Telegram channel.

"It has been established that in April 2022, while outside the Russian Federation, Filatov posted in his open channel on one of the messengers an appeal to an unspecified group of individuals, containing statements that express and form contemptuous and hostile attitudes towards Russians, as well as inciting violent actions against them. With the intention of increasing audience reach, he also made this appeal publicly available on his page in one of the social networks," the court noted.

"I see how hatred is consuming all of us after the atrocities that the monsters committed in Kyiv region… The time for cold rage has come. Now we have the full moral right to calmly and with completely unclouded minds kill these monsters all over the world," Filatov wrote at that time.