MOSCOW: Ukrainian bombardments killed two people and set an oil facility ablaze in Russia on Saturday, officials said, on the second day of 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 conflict in its neighbour -- particularly during the highly touted elections.
Putin, who cast his vote online, vowed a harsh response to the assaults and accused Kyiv 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 that 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," 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.
The ministry later said it had fought off more "attempts to infiltrate into the territory of the Russian Federation by Ukrainian group sabotage and reconnaissance groups".
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 said this week in televised comments that the spate of aerial and ground assaults by Kyiv's forces "will not go unpunished".
The Kremlin has cast 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.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday hailed Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula -- where voting is also taking place -- 10 years ago from Ukraine.
"The peninsula is an integral part of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said in a statement. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
