Russia shuts schools, malls near border amid more Ukraine attacks

Russia has shut schools and shopping centres in the border region of Belgorod as it faces an uptick in attacks from Ukrainian forces which it says are designed to disrupt the ongoing presidential election.

Two people were killed and three injured in a Ukrainian missile strike this morning, the regional governor said, prompting the closures across the city. Earlier on Saturday, the governor said that five people, including one child, had been injured in a drone strike on a car that was travelling close to the Ukrainian border.

Videos showed fires blazing and air raid sirens ringing out in Belgorod’s deserted streets.

The Russian defence ministry on Saturday also said that it had thwarted more Ukrainian attacks on the Belgorod border region.

“Attacks were repelled and attempts to infiltrate into the territory of the Russian Federation by Ukrainian militant sabotage and reconnaissance groups...were foiled,” the ministry claimed in a statement.

The uptick in attacks come as Russians are heading to the polls in a second day of elections in which President Vladimir Putin is all but guaranteed to secure his 24-year-rule until at least 2030.

The facilities hit by Ukrainian drones in the past days account for about 12% of Russia’s oil-processing capacity, Bloomberg reported.

Follow the latest updates below and join the conversation in the comments section.

04:59 PM GMT

Today’s live blog is now closed

That’s all for today. Thanks for following along. Here is a summary of the day:

• Russia has shut schools and shopping centres in the border region of Belgorod as it faces an uptick in attacks from Ukrainian forces which it says are designed to disrupt the ongoing presidential election. Two people were killed and three injured in a Ukrainian missile strike this morning, the regional governor said, prompting the closures across the city. Earlier on Saturday, the governor said that five people, including one child, had been injured in a drone strike on a car that was travelling close to the Ukrainian border.

• Ukrainian drones this morning struck two Russian oil refineries, causing a fire at one that took hours to extinguish. Some 500 miles east of Ukraine, the incident marked the latest long-range drone attack on Russian refineries which have become near-daily incidents. Azarov said workers at both plants had been evacuated and there were no casualties.

• Overall turnout - an important indicator for Putin as he attempts to demonstrate the whole country is behind him - rose above 50% on the second day of voting in the presidential election. The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said there had so far been 20 incidents of people trying to destroy voting sheets by pouring various liquids into ballot boxes, as well as eight cases of attempted arson and a smoke bomb.

• The head of an independent vote-monitoring group that Russia has labelled a “foreign agent” says the presidential election is the least transparent the country has seen.

• Ukraine is running so low on ammunition that it will run out of air defence missiles to defend its cities by the end of the month, according to reports. Supplies of missiles defending cities such as Odesa - where 20 people were killed on Friday - are dwindling fast, according to Ukrainian sources quoted by The Washington Post.

• Russia’s governing party has been hit by a cyber attack as the country’s presidential elections, in which Vladimir Putin is all but certain to win, heads into a second day. United Russia said it was facing a widespread denial of service attack - a form of cyberattack that snarls internet use - against its online presence, and had suspended non-essential services to repel the attack.

• Europe should avoid “grand statements” and contradictions but rather have a clear and unified strategy against Russia with regards to its war in Ukraine, Italy’s defence minister said, adding that Rome would never send troops to the conflict zone.

• There has been a record growth in the number of Russian men ages 31 to 59 with disabilities, the UK defence ministry said in its daily intelligence briefing. “The increase in the number of men with disabilities was most likely due to the growth in military invalids,” the MoD said.

04:43 PM GMT

Pictured: Ukraine’s training exercises in Chernobyl

04:40 PM GMT

Russia accuses Ukraine of dropping shell on polling station

Russia has accused Ukraine of dropping a shell from a drone onto a polling station in the Russian-controlled region of Zaporizhzhia.

In addition, the Russian foreign ministry has accused Kyiv of increasing “terrorist activities” during the Russian presidential election to attract more aid and weapons from the West.

“It is obvious that the corrupt regime in Kyiv has intensified its terrorist activities in connection with the ongoing presidential elections in Russia in order to demonstrate its activity to its Western handlers and to beg for even more financial assistance and lethal weapons,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

04:10 PM GMT

The latest from the prisoners of war vigil

03:50 PM GMT

Tycoon Deripaska says Western firms shouldn’t be pressured to sell Russian assets

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska has said that Western investors should not be pressured to sell their Russian assets, a practice he said was dishonest, short-sighted and harmful to the Russian and global economies.

“Pushing foreign companies to sell their Russian assets is dishonest, shortsighted and extremely harmful to the economy not only the global economy, but also to Russia’s,” Deripaska was quoted saying by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, remarks confirmed as accurate by a spokesman for Deripaska.

“It is important that the few Western investors who still work in Russia remain owners of their enterprises and be able to survive these difficult times.”

Some Western investors who have remained in Russia say they have come under pressure to sell up, being offered bargain-basement prices and threatened with effective expropriation.

In the wartime economy of Russia, some businessmen have become billionaires by acquiring the prime assets of Western companies at extremely discounted prices.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Deripaska himself has been sanctioned by Britain for his alleged ties to Putin.

03:22 PM GMT

Moscow says it thwarted Kyiv’s 15 rocket attack on Belgorod

Russia shot down 15 rockets over Belgorod around 20 minutes ago, according to Moscow’s ministry of defence.

The statement said that they used the RM-70 Vampire multiple launch system.

Ukrainian cross-border strikes have become part of daily life in Belgorod recently. Over the past day three people were killed.

03:10 PM GMT

Russian strikes on Kherson injured three, Ukrainian officials say

Russian attacks on the Kherson Oblast this afternoon injured three civilians, local authorities reported.

A 71-year-old man was injured in a Russian drone attack against the city of Beryslav. Officials said he was hospitalised with a blast injury and a leg wound.

A 27-year-old woman was also injured in a drone strike in the city. She suffered a blast injury, a shoulder wound, and a contusion.

The city of Antonivka also came under an attack, officials said, causing an 83-year-old woman to be hospitalised.

Ukraine liberated Kherson in the autumn 2022 counteroffensive and pushed Russian troops to the east bank of the Dnipro, which they continue to fire across.

02:59 PM GMT

Ukraine was behind attack on oil refineries, source says

Ukraine’s SBU security service was behind the attack on three oil refineries overnight.

The news comes from Reuters news agency, which cites a Ukrainian source, who said: “The SBU continues to implement its strategy to undermine the economic potential of the Russian Federation, which allows it to wage war in Ukraine”.

He said the attacks had results but did not give further details.

02:50 PM GMT

National Resistance Center: Resistance disrupts ‘voting’ in occupied Skadovsk, injures five Russian troops

Resistance forces set off an explosion yesterday near a polling station in Russian-occupied Skadovsk in the Kherson oblast, injuring five Russian soldiers, according to the national resistance centre of Ukraine.

The explosion forced the Russian administration in Skadovsk to cancel voting at polling stations and allow it only in places of residence, the centre said.

02:18 PM GMT

Turnout in Russian election above 50 per cent on second day of voting

Overall turnout - an important indicator for Putin as he attempts to demonstrate the whole country is behind him - rose above 50% on the second day of voting in the presidential election.

The head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said there had so far been 20 incidents of people trying to destroy voting sheets by pouring various liquids into ballot boxes, as well as eight cases of attempted arson and a smoke bomb.

The rate in Belgorod region, where Ukrainian cross-border strikes have become part of daily life, was over 70%. Turnout was also high in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine where Kyiv says voting is illegal and void.

The main focus will be on Sunday’s third day of voting, when Navalny’s supporters have called on people to turn out en masse at noon in a rolling protest against Putin in each of the country’s 11 time zones.

Pamfilova, the top election official, has said that people who try to disrupt voting are “scumbags” and could face up to five years in prison. She said, without providing evidence, that Ukrainian intelligence and its “accomplices and handlers” - a reference to the West - were behind the rash of protest actions seen so far at polling stations.

02:06 PM GMT

Pictured: Vigil for Ukrainian prisoners of war

01:51 PM GMT

Russian shelling of Donetsk Oblast village kills a civilian, injures another

A Russian artillery strike against the village of Novoselivka Persha in Donetsk Oblast today, killed a 51-year-old man and injured another resident, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

The injured man was hospitalised, the governor said.

The village is around nine miles west of Avdiivka, a small city that fell into Russian hands in February.

The Institute for the Study of War today said that Russian forces are “particularly concentrating on pushing as far west of Avdiivka as possible before Ukrainian forces can establish a harder-to-penetrate line in the area”.

01:35 PM GMT

Continued attacks on polling stations in Russia: reports

12:50 PM GMT

Russia’s MoD says two Ukrainian drones shot down 20 minutes ago over Belgorod

Moscow claims it shot down two Ukrainian drones around 20 minutes ago over the Belgorod region.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russia’s border cities and its oil infrastructure amid Moscow’s presidential election.

The claim, from the ministry of defence, could not immediately be verified.

12:46 PM GMT

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman blasts ‘UK interference’ in elections

The spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry has responded to the British foreign office post, which we shared earlier, which said Russia had no right to hold elections on sovereign Ukrainian territory.

“I have the following question for the British Embassy: has your ambassador been to Smolensk Square for a long time? It doesn’t give us pleasure to see him, but we can call him for prevention if this doesn’t stop,” a post on Telegram by Maria Zakharova read.

“The Foreign Office cannot accept that the days are gone when London decided who and what ‘belonged’, cutting borders at its whim and based on the principle of ‘divide and conquer’, laying the foundation for many of the conflicts of our time.”

The spokeswoman claimed that the UK was “interfering” in the Russian elections and said that the controversy surrounding the Princess of Wales’ photoshopped image points is another example of British “blatant misinformation.”

12:28 PM GMT

Leonid Slutsky, a supporting character – or ‘rival’ – in Putin’s 2024 rubber-stamp elections casts his vote

12:24 PM GMT

Ukraine faces ammunition crisis as air defence missiles dwindle

Ukraine is running so low on ammunition that it will run out of air defence missiles to defend its cities by the end of the month, according to reports. Supplies of missiles defending cities such as Odesa - where 20 people were killed on Friday - are dwindling fast, according to Ukrainian sources quoted by The Washington Post.

That means that instead of trying to shoot down four out of five Russian missiles as it does now, Ukraine will soon have to ration its air defence systems to shooting down just one in five. This will have a “significant effect on Ukraine’s urban centres”, The Washington Post quoted two Ukrainian officials as telling US officials at a security conference this year.

Politicians in the US are locked in a fierce debate on whether to maintain military aid to Ukraine, currently at around £31.3 billion.

This week Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, said that Donald Trump, the presumed Republican candidate at this year’s US presidential election had told him that he wouldn’t give any more cash to Ukraine.

Read more from James Kilner here.

12:14 PM GMT

Death toll in yesterday’s Odesa attack rises to 21

“Today, one more employee of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, another victim of yesterday’s Russian attack on Odesa, died in the hospital from serious injuries,” Ihor Klymenko reported.

Thus, the death toll from the attack on Odesa on March 15 increased to 21.

“More than 70 people were injured”

12:13 PM GMT

Fire at Syzran has been extinguished, Russian press says

A fire caused by a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s Syzran oil refinery has been put out, Russian news agencies said on Saturday, more than five hours after it was first reported.

The extent of damage and impact on production were not clear.

11:45 AM GMT

More than 100 settlements in Ukraine came under Russian artillery fire yesterday, Ukraine’s armed forces says

Russian forces launched 10 rockets and 68 aviation strikes, carried out 89 shellings and engaged in 78 combat clashes in Ukraine yesterday, general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in its morning briefing.

Around 100 settlements of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts came under artillery fire.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian defence forces struck seven areas where Russian personnel were concentrated, and struck down two Shahed attack drones in the Kharkiv oblast, it said.

11:04 AM GMT

Belgorod closes schools and shopping centres as Ukraine ups attacks during Russian elections

Authorities in the Russian border city of Belgorod have announced they are closing schools and shopping centres due to an uptick in Ukrainian strikes coinciding with Russia’s presidential election.

“Based on the current situation, we have decided that shopping centres in Belgorod and the Belgorod district will not work on Sunday and Monday,” regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media, noting that schools would also be closed on Monday and Tuesday next week.

11:03 AM GMT

Russia says it repelled more attempts to penetrate its territory from Ukraine

Russia repelled several attempts to penetrate its territory from Ukraine, the defence ministry claimed on Saturday, the latest in a series of raids it has reported in recent days.

In a statement, the ministry said the attempted incursions were made by Ukrainian “sabotage and militant groups”.

11:01 AM GMT

Putin’s party website hit by major cyber attack

Russia’s governing party has been hit by a cyber attack as the country’s presidential elections, in which Vladimir Putin is all but certain to win, heads into a second day.

United Russia said it was facing a widespread denial of service attack - a form of cyberattack that snarls internet use - against its online presence, and had suspended non-essential services to repel the attack.

Putin, who is running in Russia’s presidential election as an independent candidate with United Russia’s support, has accused Ukraine of seeking to sabotage the polls. He is almost certain to extend his 24-year-rule until at least 2030.

It marks the first presidential elections in Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and while Putin faces no meaningful opposition, there have already been incidents of arson at polling stations and voters sabotaging ballot boxes recorded across five regions.

Russia’s electoral commission on Friday reported that it had faced more than 10,500 cyber-attacks in the first day of voting, and a key government website used for online voting was unavailable in some Russian regions for much of the day.

10:39 AM GMT

Russia has no legitimate basis to hold elections on the sovereign Ukrainian territory, British foreign office reiterates

10:33 AM GMT

Europe needs clear, united strategy against Russia, Italy minister says

Europe should avoid “grand statements” and contradictions but rather have a clear and unified strategy against Russia with regards to its war in Ukraine, Italy’s defence minister said, adding that Rome would never send troops to the conflict zone.

“The West should avoid grand statements - such as sending NATO to Ukraine trying to make itself look better. Or avoid splitting into meetings of two or three when there are 27 of us in Europe,” Guido Crosetto told the daily la Repubblica on Saturday in an interview.

In order to counter Russia, “a monolith,” Crosetto said Europe needed “a clear, non-contradictory strategy, and perhaps built together as a coalition’.

Crosetto criticised a meeting between Germany, France and Poland held on Friday, saying it was “impractical” to divide the European coalition that was supporting Ukraine.

Like Crosetto, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, in a separate interview to Corriere della Sera on Saturday ruled out that Italian troops would ever be sent to Ukraine and said that “our objective is to reach peace, not widen the war.”

The comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated again that sending Western troops into Ukraine shouldn’t be ruled out, though he said today’s situation doesn’t require it.

10:29 AM GMT

Belgorod governor gives more details on this morning’s fatal Ukrainian missile strike

As we reported earlier, Ukrainian bombardments killed two people in a Russian border region this morning, according ot its governor, rocking the country as it headed to the polls.

A man and a woman died, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov.

“The man was driving a truck when he was hit by a shell, after which the car crashed into a passenger bus,” he posted on Telegram. “Another woman died in a garage cooperative, where she and her son came to feed the dogs. Unfortunately, the woman died on the spot. Doctors are fighting for the life of her son - the man has shrapnel wounds to the back of his head, shoulder and chest.”
⠀
Two more men had head injuries as a result of the strikes, Gladkov said. “Their condition is assessed as satisfactory. All victims were taken to city hospital No. 2 in Belgorod, where doctors provided them with all the necessary medical care.”
⠀
On the destruction in the city of Belgorod, he said that in seven apartment buildings, windows were broken and glazing on balconies were damaged. Two social facilities and two business facilities were also slightly damaged, he said. According to preliminary data, 15 cars were damaged.

10:13 AM GMT

Russia, China and Iran finish joint maritime drills in Gulf of Oman

10:08 AM GMT

Independent vote monitor says Russian elections are ‘most secret’ ever

The head of an independent vote-monitoring group that Russia has labelled a “foreign agent” says the presidential election is the least transparent the country has seen.

Stanislav Andreichuk, co-chairman of Golos (Voice), said the use of electronic voting for the first time in a presidential election, and the fact that voting is spread over three days, both serve to make the process more opaque.

“These are the most closed, most secret elections in Russian history,” Andreichuk told Reuters in a telephone interview, referring to the 33 years since the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin says the election, which began on Friday, is a proper democratic process and predicts that Putin will win on the basis of overwhelming popular support. Election authorities say it will be scrutinised by 706 foreign observers and as many as a third of a million Russian observers nominated by candidates, political parties and social organisations.

Andreichuk said high turnout figures on day one of the election reflected pressure on people by managers in the workplace to make sure they voted.

“People are going and voting first thing in the morning because their bosses make them. It’s very convenient to keep track of them because it’s a working day,” he said.

10:03 AM GMT

Evacuation of civilians continues in Sumy Oblast as Moscow intensifies attacks

Ukrainian authorities are continuing evacuations of communities in the northeastern Sumy Oblast close to the Russian border after Moscow intensified its attacks against the region, local officials said yesterday.

Over 180 residents from areas adjacent to the Velyka Pysarivka community have been evacuated.

Overnight and this morning, Russia carried out 13 incidents of shelling of the border territories and settlements of the Sumy region, local officials said this morning. The communities of Velikopysarivsk, Bilopolsk, Esmansk, Yunakivsk and Svesk came under fire, the authorities said.

09:56 AM GMT

We’re the only opposition to Putin left, say Russian soldiers fighting for Kyiv

Ukraine’s Russian units said they are the only remaining opposition to Vladimir Putin as they pleaded with the West for military support in interviews on Friday as they conducted a daring raid.

Speaking from Russian soil and operations rooms during the biggest cross-border raid since the war began, commanding officers said they were attacking Russia to resist the president’s “perverted vision of the world”.

Three Ukrainian units made up of Russian citizens – Freedom of Russia Legion (LSR), the Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) and the Siberian Battalion – began an operation into the Kursk and Belgorod regions of Russia on Tuesday.

It was launched to coincide with Russia’s elections, with polls open from Friday until Sunday. It is part of a multi-pronged attack that includes Ukrainian drones shutting down three oil refineries deep within Russian territory.

Speaking from somewhere near Tyotkino, Aleksey Baranovsky, a former lawyer and political dissident who is now an LSR fighter, said they were seeking to interrupt the election and show there were still people willing to oppose “dictator” Putin.

“We are sending a message to those inside Russia, who are demoralised and lost since [Alexei] Navalny’s murder, that we are still here, willing to fight the regime,” he said.

“We also want to show Western governments and people, like those in the UK, that we are fighting the regime, the election is not legal and that, of course Putin will win, but he is not a legitimate leader,” he added.

Mr Baranovsky urged the West to support their resistance movement “at least behind closed doors”.

Read more from Liz Cookman here.

09:54 AM GMT

Yesterday’s Odesa attack left at least 20 dead, more than 70 injured

Russian missiles pounded Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa on Friday, killing more than a dozen people including rescue workers in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky described as “vile”.

Local authorities said Russian aerial bombardments struck residential buildings, ambulances and a gas pipeline, leaving at least 20 people dead and wounding another 73 people, including rescuers.

Maria Slyzovska, who witnessed the attack, said the first strike rocked her mother’s home leaving “everything broken” before the second missile hit.

“There were a lot of people there. There was blood and ambulances. We all live in the realities of this Russian roulette,” she told AFP.

Zelensky said Russian forces had launched a type of attack known as a double-tap strike on the port hub, with the second projectile ploughing into rescue workers at the scene.

City officials said Moscow targeted Odesa with Iskander missiles launched from the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.

“Russian terror in Odesa is a sign of weakness of the enemy, which is fighting Ukrainian civilians at a time when it cannot guarantee security for people on its own territory,” said presidential aide Andriy Yermak.

09:41 AM GMT

War spikes record growth in Russian men with disabilities, British MoD says

09:33 AM GMT

Ukraine drones hit Russia’s Syzran oil refinery, governor says

Ukrainian drones this morning struck two Russian oil refineries, causing a fire at one that is still raging.

Some 500 miles east of Ukraine, the incident marked the latest long-range drone attack on Russian refineries which have become near-daily incidents.

While the Syzran refinery was on fire, an attack on the Novokubyshev refinery was thwarted, Governor Dmitry Azarov said in a statement on Telegram.

Both are owned by the Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft.

Unverified footage published online showed what appeared to be a major fire at the Syzran refinery, with emergency services working at the scene.

Azarov said workers at both plants had been evacuated and there were no casualties.

The facilities hit by Ukrainian drones in the past days account for about 12% of Russia’s oil-processing capacity, Bloomberg reported.

Ukraine has in recent weeks heavily targeted Russia’s oil infrastructure, striking refineries throughout European Russia. The facilities hit by Ukrainian drones in the past days account for about 12% of Russia’s oil-processing capacity, Bloomberg reported.

09:26 AM GMT

Two killed in shelling of Russian border city Belgorod, governor says

Two people were killed and three wounded in a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian border city of Belgorod, the regional governor said on Saturday, as Russian citizens vote through Sunday in a three-day presidential election.

In a statement on the messenger app Telegram, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that the city had been struck by missiles fired from a Vampire rocket launcher system. He said that vehicles and buildings had been damaged both in Belgorod and in surrounding villages.

Video obtained by Reuters showed fires blazing and air raid sirens ringing out in Belgorod’s deserted streets.

Earlier on Saturday, Gladkov said that five people, including one child, had been injured in a drone strike on a car that was travelling close to the Ukrainian border.

09:20 AM GMT

Good morning

Hello and welcome to the Telegraph’s daily live coverage of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Today Russians are heading to the polls in a second day of elections in which President Vladimir Putin is all but guaranteed to secure his 24-year-rule until at least 2030.

Follow along as we bring you all of the latest developments throughout the day.

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