KYIV – Ukraine reported dozens of attacks by Russia near their shared border on March 17 as partial results showed President Vladimir Putin winning re-election by the largest margin since Soviet times.
Meanwhile, Moscow has accused Kyiv of election sabotage with days of strikes on Russian infrastructure, one of the most sweeping air operations on Russian territory since Mr Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
In Russia’s Belgorod region earlier on the last day of voting, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian shelling killed one man and wounded 11 others. He said a 16-year-old girl had been killed in the border region after a Ukrainian shell set her house on fire earlier in the day.
The military administration in Ukraine’s Sumy region reported 60 shelling incidents of border territories and settlements. It also said the city of Konotop suffered a rocket attack, but no injuries were reported.
One person was killed and another injured in the community of Velykopysarivska, the authorities in Sumy said.
Buildings and infrastructure were also damaged there, including a hospital department, a kindergarten, a library, a multi-story building and a gas pipeline, it said.
Ukraine’s emergency services said Russian aerial bombs hit a residential area in Vovchansk in the nearby border region of Kharkiv, igniting a fire that covered an area of 200 sq m and damaged buildings and cars. No injuries were reported.
Earlier on March 17, one man was killed and at least eight people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv, Ukrainian officials said, after an overnight strike on Odesa.
Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram there had been two strikes on Mykolaiv. A man aged about 50 died in hospital, while the injured included a girl aged about 11, he said.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs shared images of damaged houses and wrecked or burnt-out cars, including one with a pair of abandoned shoes and other damaged items strewn on the ground alongside its open driver’s door, and rescue workers helping people leave the scene and dousing a blackened car.
“Police found an injured girl with shrapnel wounds who was given first aid on the spot and taken to hospital,” the ministry said on its Telegram channel of the aftermath in Mykolaiv.
Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian air attacks had damaged agricultural enterprises and destroyed several industrial buildings in the port city of Odesa.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. REUTERS
