Putin, who forged his vote on-line, has vowed a harsh response to the assaults and accused Ukraine of attempting to “disrupt” his bid for an additional six-year mandate.
The Belgorod governor stated two residents had been killed and others injured on Saturday.
“A person was driving a lorry when a shell hit him, after which the car crashed right into a passenger bus. The folks on it weren’t injured,” Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media.
“One other lady was killed in a car parking zone the place she and her son got here to feed the canine. Medics are preventing for her son’s life,” he added.
All through Saturday, Russia’s defence ministry stated it had downed rockets, missiles and drones over Belgorod and Kursk, one other border area that has seen an uptick in assaults.
Russia votes in election with just one actual candidate: Vladimir Putin
Russia votes in election with just one actual candidate: Vladimir Putin
It additionally stated Russian forces had fought off extra tried infiltrations by “Ukrainian militant sabotage and reconnaissance teams”.
Kremlin proxy officers within the occupied Kherson area of southern Ukraine in the meantime stated one particular person was killed and 4 wounded in a drone assault.
The border assaults had been a priority for voters a whole bunch of kilometres away within the city of Sergiev Posad outdoors Moscow, well-known for its ornate Orthodox monastery with golden onion domes.
Casting her poll from dwelling with the assistance of election officers going door-to-door, 87-year-old Inessa Rozhkova stated she hoped the polls would convey an finish to the battle with Ukraine.
“Are you able to think about how many individuals died? And now our border villages are struggling. We fear for them,” she stated.
In a close-by polling station at a vocational faculty, Elena Kirsanova, 68, got here along with her husband to vote for Putin.
“They attempt to scare us, however this isn’t a nation that may be intimidated,” Kirsanova stated.
Putin, 71, has been in energy for the reason that final day of 1999 and is about to increase his grip over the nation till 2030. If he completes one other Kremlin time period, he’ll maintain energy longer than any Russian chief since Catherine the Nice within the 18th century.
‘We gained’t neglect you!’: Russians mourn Navalny at Moscow funeral, defy Kremlin
‘We gained’t neglect you!’: Russians mourn Navalny at Moscow funeral, defy Kremlin
He faces no real competitors within the vote, having barred two candidates who opposed the battle in Ukraine. And his important home opponent, Alexei Navalny, died final month in an Arctic jail in unexplained circumstances.
The Kremlin has pitched the election as a possibility for Russians to point out they’re behind Moscow’s full-scale navy marketing campaign in Ukraine and Putin’s anti-Western agenda.
“The actions of the West … unites the folks of Russia extra,” 70-year-old voter Lyubov Pyankova stated on Saturday in St Petersburg, Putin’s dwelling metropolis.
Voting was additionally happening in elements of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces – a transfer decried as “unlawful” and a “sham” by Kyiv and Western governments.
![Residents of Avdiivka, who now live in a temporary accommodation centre, receive their ballots at a polling station on Friday. Photo: Reuters](https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/03/17/4a40c701-6ebe-4146-b82e-2127de3a5a19_9e137919.jpg)
On Saturday, state media confirmed troopers and election officers gathering ballots from aged residents in Avdiivka, the frontline metropolis destroyed by months of preventing earlier than being captured by Russian forces final month.
Authorities accused not less than two extra Russians – one within the central metropolis of Yekaterinburg and within the western exclave of Kaliningrad – of pouring inexperienced ink into poll packing containers, following a spate of arrests for comparable acts and arson assaults a day earlier.
They withstand 5 years in jail underneath fees of obstructing election proceedings.
The substance being poured into the poll packing containers resembles zelyonka, a surgical antiseptic used beforehand by pro-Kremlin actors to douse on opposition politicians, together with Navalny.
Russia says it killed 234 fighters whereas thwarting incursion from Ukraine
Russia says it killed 234 fighters whereas thwarting incursion from Ukraine
Russia’s FSB safety service additionally introduced arrests of Russians it stated had been aiding Ukrainian forces or planning to hold out sabotage at navy and transport amenities.
Ukrainian assaults have prolonged nicely past border areas with Kyiv’s forces concentrating on oil amenities deep inside Russian territory.
The governor of the Samara area – round 800km (500 miles) from the entrance traces – stated on Saturday that Ukrainian drones had focused two oil refineries, igniting a blaze at certainly one of them.
A defence supply in Kyiv stated the assault was deliberate by the SBU safety providers as a part of “a method to disrupt the financial potential of Russia”.
“Every such defeat reduces the circulate of petrodollars that feeds Russia’s warfare economic system,” the supply stated.