Russia: Schools and shops shut in Belgorod amid air strikes
Following bombardments that authorities in Belgorod, Russia, have attributed to Ukraine, both shops and schools in the city have been closed.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported two fatalities amidst ongoing voting in a general election widely expected to result in Vladimir Putin’s victory.
According to Mr. Gladkov, Belgorod’s air defense systems successfully intercepted eight Ukrainian missiles. President Putin has accused Ukraine of attempting to undermine his reelection campaign.
In response to the situation, students in Belgorod, situated near the Ukrainian border, will not attend school on Monday and Tuesday, as announced by the governor. Additionally, shopping centers in the city will remain closed on Sunday and Monday.
Mr. Gladkov revealed that one casualty occurred in a car park where a woman, accompanied by her son and their dog, was fatally injured, while medics are striving to save her son’s life.
Images circulating on social media depict a car park engulfed in smoke and flames, indicating Belgorod as a repeated target of retaliatory strikes from Kyiv.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that they inflicted losses in the border regions of Ukraine, as well as in the Belgorod and Kursk areas.
Furthermore, on Saturday, the governor of the Samara region, southeast of Moscow, reported Ukrainian drone attacks on two oil refineries.
In a post on Telegram, Dmitry Azarov said one of the refineries, in Syzran, had been set alight but there were no casualties.
A Ukrainian source told Reuters Kyiv’s SBU intelligence agency struck three Samara region Rosneft refineries – in Syzran, Novokuibyshevsk, and Kuibyshevsk.
Kyiv has not commented about the attacks in Belgorod.
The elections, which are described as neither free nor fair by critics, are set to see Mr Putin win six more years in office. The result is not in doubt as Mr Putin has no credible opponent.
Potential candidates who opposed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were barred from running. Mr Putin’s most vocal critic, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic prison last month.
Mr Navalny’s spokespeople have accused the Kremlin of killing the politician. These suggestions have been vehemently denied by the Russian government.
His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, called on Kremlin opponents to go to polling stations en masse at noon on Sunday to protest against the election.
Despite these elections being skewed in Mr. Putin’s favour, voting on Friday was filled with acts of vandalism at polling stations.
Incidents of vandalism involved green dye being poured into ballot boxes, the boxes being set alight and fireworks being set off inside polling stations, state media reported.
“They try to scare us, but this is not a nation that can be intimidated,” 68-year-old Elena Kirsanova told AFP.
On Saturday, the ruling United Russia party said it had endured a large-scale hacking attack on its website, as reported by AFP.
Voting is taking place in Russia over three days until Sunday, spanning several time zones. Polling stations opened in the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia’s easternmost region, at 08:00 local time on Friday (20:00 GMT on Thursday) and will finally close in the westernmost Kaliningrad exclave at 20:00 on Sunday.
