Russia on Saturday accused Ukraine of using “terrorist activities” to try to disrupt its presidential elections and former President Dmitry Medvedev condemned as “traitors” the scattered protesters who tried to set fire to voting booths and pour dye into the ballot boxes.
The war in Ukraine has cast a shadow over voting in the election, which will surely give President Vladimir Putin six more years in the Kremlin, but which has been marked by sporadic acts of protest.
On the second of three days of voting, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Kyiv had “intensified its terrorist activities” in connection with the election “to demonstrate its activity to its Western interlocutors and plead for even more financial assistance and lethal weapons.”
He said that in one such incident, a Ukrainian drone had dropped a projectile on a voting station in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
The state TASS news agency cited a local election official as reporting no damage or injuries when the explosive device fell five or six meters from a building housing a polling station before it opened its doors in a town about 20 kilometers away. east of the city of Enerhodar. Reuters could not independently verify the incident.
There was no immediate comment from officials in Ukraine, which considers elections taking place in Russian-controlled parts of its territory illegal and void.
Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, stated that in the first two days of voting there were 20 incidents in which people tried to destroy voting ballots by pouring various liquids into the ballot boxes, as well as eight cases of attempted fire and a fire. smoke bomb.
Commenting on the incidents, Medvedev said those responsible could face 20-year treason sentences.
“This is direct help to those degenerates who bomb our cities today,” he posted on social media, referring to the Ukrainian attacks.
On the final day of voting on Sunday, supporters of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on people to turn out en masse at noon in an ongoing protest against Putin in each of the country’s eleven time zones.
