Russian voters go to the polls today, Friday, to cast presidential elections that are certain to give President Vladimir Putin a fifth term in power.
The vote is scheduled to take place over three days, although there is no credible challenger to the current leader.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Russian attempts to hold elections in the occupied territories or force residents of the region to go to the polls would be “illegal” — a view echoed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a separate news conference, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, skirmishes continued Thursday in Russia's Belgorod and Kursk border regions, as three Russian paramilitary groups based in Ukraine – the Freedom Corps of Russia, the Siberian Brigades and the RDK – seek to break into Russian territory.
A member of the local election commission, accompanied by a soldier, visits voters during early voting in the Russian presidential election in Donetsk, Russia-controlled Ukraine, amid the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on March 14, 2024.
stringer | AFP | Getty Images
The Russian Defense Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that it repelled another attempted incursion into Belgorod on Thursday, but the Russian Freedom Corps said attacks would continue until the region was “completely liberated from Putin's regime forces.”
The death toll is rising in Odessa, southern Ukraine, after a Russian missile attack hit a residential area in the early hours of Friday morning, regional officials said.
Ukraine also shot down 27 Iranian-made drones over seven regions across the country in the early hours of Friday morning, including around the capital, the Ukrainian Air Force claimed.
Elsewhere, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised interview broadcast on Thursday evening that Russia cannot be allowed to win the war, and stressed his refusal to rule out sending forces from NATO countries to Ukraine.
“If Russia wins, the lives of the French people will change. We will no longer have security in Europe. Who can seriously believe that Putin, who has not respected any borders, will stop there?” Macron said.
