Ukrainian rockets pounding the Belgorod border region for hours, ink spilled in protest ballot boxes in several Russian cities, an attempted fire bottle attack in St. Petersburg and Kiev bombing of polling stations in occupied Kherson.
The first day of the electoral marathon intended to reconfirm Vladimir Putin - who voted online - as leader of the country for a fifth term passed in a anything but peaceful manner.
“The neo-Nazi regime in Kiev is trying to intimidate people and disrupt the electoral process,” accused the Kremlin head, while assuring that Ukrainian attacks “will not go unpunished.”
Video Elections in Russia, Molotov at a polling station in Yugra
However, the three election days, which will end on Sunday evening, do not even stop Russian attacks on Ukraine.
At least 20 people were killed and 73 injured in a missile raid on the port city of Odessa, according to a toll from local authorities.
An attack defined as "ignoble" by President Volodymyr Zelensky who condemned "Russian scum" for launching two missiles, "the second when rescuers and doctors had already arrived".
Among the victims there would also be a doctor and a member of the rescue units.
The presidential elections are also held in the four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by the Russians and officially annexed to Moscow, those of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
In the latter, the local electoral commission reported, a bomb was detonated in front of a polling station, while Kiev troops bombed two others, in Kakhovka and Brilevka.
In this second location there are "wounded people".
Video Elections in Russia, ink spilled in the ballot boxes
In Russia, however, Ukrainian Vampire rockets began to hit the Belgorod region in the early hours of the day, where in recent days Russian military forces forming part of Kiev's troops had claimed responsibility for infiltration attempts.
Speaking to the Russian Security Council, Putin himself denounced that since last March 12, Ukraine has "used 2,500 men, 35 tanks and around 40 armored combat vehicles" in an attempt to enter Russian territory in the direction of Belgorod and Kursk, but "the enemy was unsuccessful."
In the last few hours, however, at least two people were killed and five injured in the attacks on Belgorod, according to local authorities.
The mayor of the city denied rumors spread by the Kiev media according to which voting operations had been suspended and the governor of the region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, posted a video of him and his wife in front of the polling station, encouraging citizens to go at the polls.
Video Russia, Putin: 'The attacks in Kiev will not go unpunished'
Meanwhile, in the rest of Russia, several people were arrested for pouring ink into the ballot boxes to sabotage the ballots, in what appeared to be a coordinated protest, in at least five polling stations in the regions of Moscow, Voronezh, Rostov and Karachay-Cherkessia.
One of these episodes was filmed by the surveillance cameras of a polling station in the capital and posted on social media.
The chairwoman of the Central Election Commission, Ella Pamfilova, warned that such acts of sabotage could lead to sentences of up to five years.
In Maryino, a neighborhood on the far south-eastern outskirts of Moscow, a 70-year-old pensioner was arrested for setting fire to a voting booth.
While in St. Petersburg a twenty-year-old was stopped while trying to throw a Molotov cocktail at a polling station.
The protest launched by Alexei Navalny's team, called 'Southern Against Putin' and called by the opponent himself shortly before dying in an Arctic penal colony last month, is scheduled for Sunday.
The staff and the widow appealed to citizens to participate by going to the polls en masse at 12pm on the last day of voting.
For further information Agenzia ANSA 114 million Russians voting in 11 time zones - News - Ansa.it Just over 114 million Russians are called to the polls from 15 to 17 March for the presidential elections, in which Vladimir Putin is showing up to get a fifth mandate.
(HANDLE)
The Moscow Prosecutor's Office has already warned that those who attend such rallies may suffer legal consequences.
On the eve of the vote, Putin had appealed to Russians to go to the polls to demonstrate their "patriotism" in this moment of "difficulty".
A reference to the conflict in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Serghei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov were the first among the authorities to be shown on television voting.
The Central Electoral Commission announced that the turnout recorded on the first day was 35 percent of those entitled to vote.
In the evening, according to the Ministry for Digital Development, 65% of those who had chosen to do so online (including Putin) had already voted, despite the "rejected" attempts at cyberattacks against the platform.
In 2018, when the elections took place in a single day, the final turnout figure was just over 67 percent.
Video Putin to citizens: 'Go and vote for your homeland'
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