Russia says Ukraine launched drone attacks on final day of presidential vote
18 March 2024, 08:04
The new wave of attacks hit the territory on Sunday, killing at least two people including a teenager, according to local officials.
Ukraine launched a new wave of attacks inside Russian territory, according to local officials, as Russians cast ballots on the final day of a presidential vote set to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule for another six years.
Authorities said at least two people were killed, including a teenager.
They also said that a drone fell on a refinery in the Krasnodar region, sparking a blaze that was extinguished a few hours later.
A worker at the refinery died of a heart attack, officials said.
Refineries and oil terminals have been targets of Ukrainian drone attacks in recent days, according to Russian officials, as part of stepped up assaults on Russian territory including long-range drone attacks and alleged incursions by Ukraine-based Russian proxies.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, including four in the Moscow region.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that a fifth drone, close to the capital’s Domodedovo airport, was downed on Sunday morning.
No casualties or damage were reported.
According to the Defence Ministry, two drones were shot down over the Kaluga region, just south of the Russian capital, and four in the Yaroslavl region, northeast of Moscow.
The attacks on the Yaroslavl region, which is located about 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border, were some of the furthest launched by Ukraine so far.
More Ukrainian drones were downed over the Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions that border Ukraine, and the southern Krasnodar region, the Defence Ministry said.
Shelling of Belgorod on Sunday morning killed a 16-year-old girl and wounded her father, while a second assault later in the day killed another man and wounded 11 others, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Elsewhere, a drone strike at a military installation in Moldova’s breakaway republic of Transnistria on Sunday destroyed a helicopter and ignited a fire, officials said.
The area’s pro-Russia authorities blamed the strike on Ukraine.
The Bureau for Reintegration Policies said in a statement that they didn’t “confirm any attack” on Transnistria, and described the reports as an “attempt to cause fear and panic in the region”.
There have been a series of Ukrainian drone raids over the past few days which Putin described as an attempt by Ukraine to frighten residents and derail Russia’s presidential election.
“Those enemy strikes haven’t been and won’t be left unpunished,” he vowed during Friday’s meeting of Russia’s Security Council.
“I’m sure that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to that with even greater cohesion.”
Two Russian ballistic missiles hit the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, wounding at least five people, the region’s Governor Vitaliy Kim wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The Ukrainian military also said that 14 Russian drones had been shot down over the Odesa region Sunday, following a Russian ballistic missile assault on the southern port city Friday that killed at least 21 people.
