Putin Vows to Punish Ukraine for Attacks That Mar Russia’s Presidential Election

This picture shows damaged cars at the scene of fresh aerial attacks on Belgorod on March 14, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows damaged cars at the scene of fresh aerial attacks on Belgorod on March 14, 2024. (AFP)
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Putin Vows to Punish Ukraine for Attacks That Mar Russia’s Presidential Election

This picture shows damaged cars at the scene of fresh aerial attacks on Belgorod on March 14, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows damaged cars at the scene of fresh aerial attacks on Belgorod on March 14, 2024. (AFP)

Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Friday of aiming to disrupt Russia's presidential election by shelling Russian territory and using 2,500 armed soldiers to try to pierce his country's borders, and vowed to punish Kyiv for its actions.

The first day of the election was also marred by disruptions including dye being poured into ballot boxes, a Molotov cocktail thrown at a polling station in Putin's home town, and reported cyber-attacks.

Millions of Russians cast their ballots across the country's 11 time zones at the start of the three-day election, which is almost certain to hand Putin six more years in the Kremlin.

The shadow of the Ukraine war fell across the election, with what Putin said was repeated shelling of Russia's western regions and an attempt by Ukrainian proxies to cross into Russian territory in two Russian regions.

"These enemy strikes will not remain unpunished," a visibly angry Putin said at a meeting of Russia's Security Council, which includes military and spy chiefs as well as the most powerful civilian state officials.

Putin said there had been four attacks on the Belgorod region and one on the Kursk region by armed Ukrainian proxies numbering about 2,500. He said they had 35 tanks and 40 armored vehicles and that 60% of the soldiers were killed.

Ukrainian officials said earlier on Friday that Russian armed groups based in Ukraine who are opposed to the Kremlin carried out the attacks in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.

Amid the Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, Putin, 71, dominates Russia's political landscape and none of the other three candidates on the ballot paper presents any credible challenge.

More than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow calls its "new territories" - four regions of Ukraine that its forces only partly control, but which it has claimed as part of Russia. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal and void.

Dye, cyber-attacks

Dye was poured into ballot boxes in Moscow, Russian-annexed Crimea, and the Caucasus region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, according to Russian media, in apparent anti-Kremlin protests.

CCTV footage of one dye-pouring incident showed a young woman depositing her voting slip before calmly pouring a green liquid into the ballot box. A policeman was seen detaining her immediately afterwards.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a polling station in St Petersburg, and a 21-year-old woman arrested, the Fontanka news site reported. Arson attempts were recorded at polling stations in Moscow and Siberia.

Russia's electoral commission chief, Ella Pamfilova, said perpetrators of such acts faced up to five years in prison, and suggested they had been paid for by those seeking to disrupt the vote.

"Listen carefully everyone," Pamfilova said, before setting out the article in the Criminal Code which dealt with disrupting the work of electoral commissions.

As of 18:40 Moscow time (1540 GMT), country-wide turnout was high, at around 26.6%. Demand for electronic voting was so high the system was overloaded.

The Kremlin says Putin, in power as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, will win as he commands broad support for rescuing Russia from post-Soviet chaos and standing up to what it says is an arrogant, hostile West.

The electoral commission said there had been over 10,000 attacks on electronic voting systems but that they had endured.



UN Rejects US Resolution Urging an End to the War in Ukraine without Noting Russian Aggression

Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)
Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Rejects US Resolution Urging an End to the War in Ukraine without Noting Russian Aggression

Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)
Ambassadors vote on a resolution to reaffirm Ukraine's territorial integrity, during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 24, 2025. (AFP)

In a win for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the United States on Monday failed to get the UN General Assembly to approve its resolution urging an end to the war without mentioning Moscow's aggression. And the assembly approved a dueling European-backed Ukrainian resolution demanding Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine.

It marks a setback for the Trump administration in the 193-member world body, whose resolutions are not legally binding but are seen as a barometer of world opinion. But it also shows some diminished support for Ukraine, whose resolution passed 93-18, with 65 abstentions. That’s lower than previous votes, which saw over 140 nations condemn Russia’s aggression.

The United States had tried to pressure the Ukrainians to withdraw their resolution in favor of its proposal, according to a US official and a European diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. They refused, and then the assembly added language to the US proposal making clear that Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in violation of the UN Charter.

The vote on the amended US resolution was 93-8 with 73 abstentions, with Ukraine voting “yes,” the US abstaining and Russia voting “no.”

Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Mariana Betsa said her country is exercising its “inherent right to self-defense” following Russia’s invasion, which violates the UN Charter’s requirement that countries respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations.

“As we mark three years of this devastation — Russia’s full invasion against Ukraine — we call on all nations to stand firm and to take ... the side of the Charter, the side of humanity and the side of just and lasting peace, peace through strength,” she said.

US deputy ambassador Dorothy Shea, meanwhile, said multiple previous UN resolutions condemning Russia and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops “have failed to stop the war,” which “has now dragged on for far too long and at far too terrible a cost to the people in Ukraine and Russia and beyond.”

“What we need is a resolution marking the commitment from all UN member states to bring a durable end to the war,” Shea said.

The dueling proposals reflect the tensions that have emerged between the US and Ukraine after President Donald Trump suddenly opened negotiations with Russia in a bid to quickly resolve the conflict. It also underscores the strain in the transatlantic alliance with Europe over the Trump administration’s extraordinary turnaround on engagement with Moscow. European leaders were dismayed that they and Ukraine were left out of preliminary talks last week.

In escalating rhetoric, Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator," falsely accused Kyiv of starting the war and warned that he “better move fast” to negotiate an end to the conflict or risk not having a nation to lead. Zelenskyy responded by saying Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space.”

Since then, the Trump administration not only declined to endorse Ukraine's UN resolution, but at the last minute proposed its own competing resolution and pressed its allies to support that version instead. It comes as Trump plans to host French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday in Washington.

The US also wanted a vote on its proposal in the more powerful UN Security Council. China, which holds the council presidency this month, has scheduled it for Monday afternoon.

The General Assembly has become the most important UN body on Ukraine because the 15-member Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has been paralyzed by Russia’s veto power.

There are no vetoes in the assembly, and the Ukraine resolution, which is co-sponsored by all 27 members of the European Union, is almost certain to be adopted. Its votes are closely watched as a barometer of world opinion, but the resolutions passed there are not legally binding, unlike those adopted by the Security Council.

Since Russia forces stormed across the border on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Assembly has approved half a dozen resolutions that have condemned Moscow’s invasion and demanded the immediate pullout of Russian troops.

The votes on the rival resolutions — which have sparked intense lobbying and arm-twisting, one European diplomat said — will be closely watched to see if that support has waned and to assess the backing for Trump’s effort to negotiate an end to the fighting.

The very brief US draft resolution acknowledges “the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict” and “implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.” It never mentions Moscow’s invasion.

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told reporters last week that the US resolution was “a good move.”

The Ukraine's resolution, meanwhile, refers to “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation” and recalls the need to implement all previous assembly resolutions “adopted in response to the aggression against Ukraine.”

It singles out the assembly’s demand that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.”

It stresses that any involvement of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia’s forces “raises serious concerns regarding further escalation of this conflict.”

The resolution reaffirms the assembly’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and also "that no territorial acquisition resulting from the threat or use of force shall be recognized as legal.”

It calls for “a de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine” and it reiterates “the urgent need to end the war this year.”