MOSCOW – The first day of voting in Russia’s presidential election was marred by acts of vandalism at polling stations on March 15, with at least nine arrests for pouring dye into ballot boxes and arson attacks.

President Vladimir Putin is set to secure another six years in the Kremlin after a three-day vote he has cast as a show of Russians’ loyalty and support for his invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year.

Despite the authorities warning that election-day protesters faced heavy punishment, at least nine were arrested for acts of vandalism at polling stations.

In Moscow, a video showed a woman setting a voting booth alight, filling a polling station with smoke, while another showed a woman pouring green dye into a ballot box.

Four others in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Karachay-Cherkessia and Rostov were detained for similar offences, while in St Petersburg and the Siberian region of Khanty-Mansi, women were detained for throwing Molotov cocktails at polling stations.

A man was detained for lighting fireworks inside a polling station in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, while in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, an explosive device was detonated at a voting site.

Close to the border with Ukraine, a wave of Ukrainian drone and artillery strikes killed two people in the Belgorod region.

‘Not to stray’

Russia also launched one of its deadliest missile attacks of the conflict, killing at least 16 in a strike on the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

The strikes cap one of the heaviest weeks of aerial attacks since the start of the conflict and come after a week of cross-border raids by pro-Kyiv guerilla fighters, bringing Mr Putin’s two-year conflict into Russian territory once again.

In power as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, victory in the three-day vote would allow the Russian leader to stay in power until 2030 – longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century.

On the eve of the vote, he urged Russians to back him in the face of a “difficult period” for the country.

“We have already shown that we can be together, defending the freedom, sovereignty and security of Russia... Today, it is critically important not to stray from this path,” he said on March 14 on state TV.

The Kremlin leader’s confidence is riding high.

His troops have secured their first territorial gains in Ukraine in nearly a year and his most strident opponent of the last decade, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison colony in February.

‘Above all, victory’

In Moscow, a few dozen residents queued in the morning sun to be among the first in the capital to cast their ballots.

“It’s important to vote, for Russia’s future,” said 70-year-old Lyudmila. She backed Mr Putin and was hoping for “above all, victory” in Ukraine.

Another Putin voter, 72-year-old Natan, said he wanted the government to “increase employment, work to ensure that there is... stability in the country”.

With all of the Russian leader’s major opponents dead, in prison or in exile, the outcome of the vote is not in any doubt.

The election authorities barred the few genuine opposition candidates who tried to run against him, and a state-run pollster predicted this week that Mr Putin would secure more than 80 per cent of the vote. Western governments and Kyiv have denounced the election as a “sham” and “farce”.

‘Landslide victory’

Voting was also being organised in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed.

Armed soldiers in full combat gear accompanied election officials in the eastern Donetsk region as they set up mobile voting stations on small tables in the street and on the hoods of Soviet-era cars.

Overall turnout was nearly 38 per cent by the morning of day two. Some of the highest rates – approaching 70 per cent – were reported in the Belgorod region where the missile strike occurred and in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine where Kyiv says voting is illegal and void.

Russia’s governing party, United Russia, said on March 16 that it was facing a widespread denial-of-service attack – a form of cyber attack aimed at paralysing Web traffic – and had suspended non-essential services to repel it.

On March 15, European Council president Charles Michel sarcastically congratulated Mr Putin on his “landslide victory”.

It was unclear whether the spate of polling station incidents was a coordinated protest against the ballot or isolated incidents.

Russia’s opposition has called for voters to form queues at polling stations on March 17, the final day of voting, as a form of protest.

Moscow prosecutors warned on March 15 that they would punish anybody involved in mass rallies.

Aerial attacks

Mr Putin put his offensive on Ukraine front and centre of his campaign. But the fallout from his military offensive risked overshadowing his election procession at home.

Kyiv launched some of its largest air attacks on Russia this week – some reaching hundreds of kilometres into Russian territory – and pro-Kyiv guerilla fighters have staged a series of brazen cross-border raids.

Ukrainian attacks on the Belgorod border region on March 15 killed at least two people, the regional governor said. Three children were killed in the Russian-held Ukrainian city of Donetsk, its mayor said.

In a statement on March 15, Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had “fully restored control” over one settlement in the Belgorod region, using artillery, air strikes and guided bombs to dislodge militia fighters after a week of cross-border raids.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on March 15 that the saboteurs were “trying to destabilise the elections, one way or another”.

Russia’s FSB security agency also announced a flurry of arrests of Russians it said were plotting attacks on crucial infrastructure to try to disrupt the elections and thwart Russia’s military offensive. AFP