War in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin accuses kyiv of disrupting the Russian presidential election

Vladimir Putin should be re-elected President of Russia. MAXPPP – IMAGO/Gavriil Grigorov

A Ukrainian missile killed two people in the Belgorod region and a separate drone attack caused a fire at an oil refinery in the Samara region on Saturday, the second day of the ;#39;presidential election in Russia.

Almost assured of winning a new six-year mandate at the end of this election organized over three days – Russia covers eleven time zones – Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of seek to disrupt voting operations in Russia a little more than two years after the start of the latter's invasion of its neighbor.

In the Belgorod region, where cross-border attacks from Ukraine are now regular, a man and a woman were killed by a missile strike, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. In a video obtained by Reuters, flames and air-warning sirens can be seen in the empty streets of the town of Belgorod.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had repelled Ukrainian infiltration attempts in the Belgorod region. Vyacheslav Gladkov announced that, given "the current situation", schools would be closed on Monday and Tuesday in most of the region and that shopping centers in the city of Belgorod itself would also be open on Sunday and Monday.

Dmitry Azarov, governor of the Samara region about 850 km southeast of Moscow, said the Syzran refinery was on fire but a second attack on another refinery had been repelled. The fire in Syzran was finally brought under control in the middle of the day, Russian news agencies reported. Ukraine has increased its strikes on Russian territory this week, particularly targeting oil refineries.

For Putin, a victory announced

These attacks do not, however, threaten the expected re-election of Vladimir Putin, in power since the end of 1999 as president and a stint as prime minister.

None of the three other candidates authorized to run is likely to contest his announced victory and his main opponents are in prison or in exile, the first of them, Alexeï Navalny, having died in detention on last month. The Kremlin hopes for a high turnout to demonstrate the Russian population's support for its president. She crossed the 50% mark early in the afternoon of the second day of voting.

The highest rates, almost 70%, were reported in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, and in Russian-controlled Ukrainian territories. The United Russia party, support of Vladimir Putin, declared on Saturday that it was the victim of a large denial of service (DDoS) computer attack.

A Russian telecoms sector official, quoted by the official RIA agency, said that computer attacks against the country had reached a level &quot ;unprecedented".

He blamed Ukraine and its Western supporters and declared that some of these activities had been linked to IP addresses in Western Europe and in North America. Several acts of protest disrupted voting operations on Friday, the first day of voting, including the pouring of tinted liquid into ballot boxes and the throwing of a Molotov cocktail against a polling station.

Ella Pamfilova, the head of the electoral commission, called the perpetrators "bastards" and declared that they risked up to five years in prison. She counted 29 incidents.