A single father who was separated from his daughter has fled house arrest before being sentenced to two years in prison over "discrediting" the Russian army, officials said.
Alexei Moskalyov, 54, gained attention after his daughter Maria drew a picture at school showing missiles next to a Russian flag heading towards a woman and child standing by a Ukrainian flag.
Mr Moskalyov then faced a criminal case for allegedly criticising Russia's assault on Ukraine and on Tuesday he was given a two-year jail sentence over comments on social media.
But in a dramatic turn of events, court officials said Mr Moskalyov had fled house arrest.
He has been separated from his 13-year-old daughter as punishment for his criticism of Kremlin policies, a first in Russia, experts say.
"The verdict was read out in the absence of the defendant, because he disappeared and did not appear at the hearing," Elena Mikhailovskaya, a spokeswoman for the Yefremov district court south of Moscow, told AFP.
Mr Moskalyov's lawyer Vladimir Biliyenko said he was in a "state of shock".
"His disappearance is a total surprise for me. This has happened for the first time in my career," Mr Biliyenko told AFP.
He said that Maria could be sent to an orphanage "within a month".
Russia's top human rights organisation Memorial, which has been shut down by Russian authorities, said on Facebook that it considered Mr Moskalyov a "political prisoner".
It said separation from his daughter was a "repressive act and an attempt to intimidate all opponents of the war, not only with prison terms but also the destruction of their families and pressure on children".
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The Moskalyovs' case has attracted national attention and led to an online petition calling for the girl to be reunited with her father.
They are from Yefremov, a small town of about 37,000 people 300 kilometres south of Moscow.
The case against Mr Moskalyov was opened after Maria's headmistress contacted the police about her picture with the flags and the missiles.
Police said an online search uncovered comments criticising Moscow's action in Ukraine on the social media profiles of the girl's father.
In early March, authorities placed Maria in a "rehabilitation centre" for minors, while Mr Moskalyov was put under house arrest.
On Monday, prosecutors demanded a two-year prison term for the father.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine more than a year ago, public criticism of Moscow's offensive in the pro-western country has been outlawed.
In modern Russia, the first recorded attempts to strip activists of parental rights were in Moscow in 2019.
But prosecutors' attempts to punish two families for taking their children to political protests were not successful at the time, however.
Even Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner paramilitary force leading Russia's assault in eastern Ukraine, has voiced support for Maria and criticised the local authorities.
