Ukrainian strikes rock Russia as vote cements
Ukrainian bombardments killed two people and set an oil facility ablaze in Russia yesterday, the second day of showpiece elections guaranteed to cement President Vladimir Putin's hardline rule.
Presidential polls opened this week but voting has been marred by an uptick in fatal Ukrainian aerial attacks and a series of incursions into Russian territory by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups.
Fresh bombardments prompted authorities to close schools and shopping centres in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, undermining the Kremlin's efforts to isolate Russians from its two-year conflict with Kyiv.
Putin, who cast his vote online, has vowed a harsh response to the assaults and accused Ukraine of trying to "disrupt" his bid for another six-year mandate.
The governor of the Belgorod region said air defence systems had downed eight Ukrainian missiles but two residents were killed and others injured.
"A man was driving a lorry when a shell hit him, after which the vehicle crashed into a passenger bus. The people on it were not injured," Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media.
"Another woman was killed in a parking lot where she and her son came to feed the dogs. Medics are fighting for her son's life," he added.
In a separate post, Gladkov announced that schools and shopping centres in the city of Belgorod and some surrounding districts would close temporarily over the coming days, the second time this month.
Russia's defence ministry earlier said it had downed rockets, missiles and drones in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk that have suffered an uptick in fatal attacks in recent weeks.
And it later said Russian forces had fought off more attempted infiltrations by "Ukrainian militant sabotage and reconnaissance groups".
Kremlin proxy officials in the occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine meanwhile said one person was killed and four wounded in a drone attack.
The border attacks were a concern for voters hundreds of kilometres away in the town of Sergiev Posad outside Moscow, famous for its ornate Orthodox monastery with golden onion domes.
Putin, 71, has been in power in Russia since the last day of 1999 and is set to extend his grip over the country until 2030.
If he completes another Kremlin term, he would stay in power longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.
He faces no genuine competition in the vote, having barred two candidates who opposed the conflict in Ukraine, and around one month after his main opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison in unexplained circumstances.
The Kremlin has pitched the election as an opportunity for Russians to show they are behind Moscow's full-scale military campaign in Ukraine, where voting is also being held in occupied territory.