Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov Sentenced in Absentia to Nine Years in Prison

Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov has been sentenced in absentia to nine years in a Russian penal colony. The ruling was issued by the Basmanny Court in Moscow, which accused the Ukrainian politician of spreading "fakes" about the Russian army and "inciting hatred".

The incident is linked to statements made by Filatov in April 2022, after the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated the city of Bucha in Kyiv Oblast from occupation. During that period, international media published shocking footage of atrocities committed by Russian military personnel.

In one of his posts, Borys Filatov expressed the feelings that overwhelmed many Ukrainians: "Я вижу, как нас всех захлёстывает ненависть после того, что нелюди творили на Киевщине... Настало время холодной ярости. Теперь у нас есть полное моральное право спокойно и с ясным разумом уничтожать этих нелюдей по всему миру" (I see how hatred is engulfing all of us after what those non-humans did in the Kyiv region... The time has come for cold fury. We now have the full moral right to calmly and with a clear mind destroy these non-humans all over the world).

This verdict is yet another example of the persecution of those who speak openly about the events of the war, and an attempt to silence the truth.