The Kremlin has begun preparing for the final day of elections as Vladimir Putin is set to resume office for what will be his fifth term ruling over Russia.
Images showed a stage being constructed in Moscow’s red Square and billboards being put up honouring the 10-year anniversary of the illegal annexation of the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which will take place on Monday.
More than 50 million Russians and Ukrainians living in occupied Ukraine have already voted in the elections, according to the Kremlin.
It comes as Russian forces launched a fresh wave of drone attacks against the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa in the early hours of Sunday.
Ukraine’s southern military command reported at least three sets of drone attacks over the city while the country’s broadcaster, Suspilne, said explosions had been heard in the area just after midnight local time.
The attacks came only minutes after the region had concluded a day of mourning following Russia’s deadliest strike in Odessa’s recent history on Friday. That attack killed at least 20 people and wounded 70 more.
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Grant Shapps forced to cancel Ukraine trip due to threat of Russian missile attack
It comes just days after it was revealed that an RAF jet transporting Mr Shapps back to England from Poland earlier this week had its GPS signal jammed while flying over the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Tom Watling16 March 2024 23:30
Russia will be asked for ceasefire during Olympics, Macron tells Ukraine interviewer
Russia will be asked to observe a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Paris Olympics, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview from Paris shown on Ukrainian television and posted by a Ukrainian journalist on her YouTube channel on Saturday.
“The demand for a ceasefire during the Olympics. They (the Russians) must do this. That is what has always happened,” the interviewer said, speaking through an interpreter.
“It will be requested,” Macron says in French before a voiceover interpretation gives his response in Ukrainian as “Yes, we will ask for it.”
“The rule of the host country is to move in step with the Olympic movement,” the interpreter quoted Macron as saying. “This is a message of peace. We will also follow the decision of the Olympic Committee.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin on Friday
(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Tom Watling16 March 2024 22:30
Putin is all set to secure six more years in power – but how will it affect key issues in Russia?
Vladimir Putin is poised to sweep to another six-year term in this week’s presidential election, even though Russians are dying in Ukraine in a war that is grinding through its third year and his country is more isolated than ever
Tom Watling16 March 2024 21:23
UK minister forced to abandon trip to Ukraine due to missile threat
Grant Shapps was forced to abandon a trip to Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa because of a Russian missile threat.
The Defence Secretary had to abort the visit after he was warned by British intelligence that the Russians had become aware of his travel plans, according to a Sunday Times report confirmed by a source close to Mr Shapps.
Britain’s Defence Secretary Grant Shapps arrives in Downing Street for a cabinet meeting in London in March
(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Tom Watling16 March 2024 20:27
How Ukrainians living under Russian occupation are being coerced to vote for Putin
Ukrainians living in regions illegally annexed by Russia are being coerced to vote in the presidential election of their wartime occupier, Vladimir Putin, an exercise denounced by Ukraine as an illegitimate effort by Moscow to tighten control over its neighbor
Tom Watling16 March 2024 20:00
Noon Against Putin: Alexei Navalny’s final plan to disrupt Russia’s sham elections
Russian citizens will spend this weekend casting their vote for their next president, even though the result has already been decided.
No amount of votes against him can prevent his victory, say the Russian dissident community, since the system is rigged and those that could challenge him have either been killed, imprisoned or exiled.
Tom Watling16 March 2024 19:20
Welsh miners send convoys of aid to Ukraine to repay help over 1984 strike
Askold Krushelnycky reports from Pavlohrad, southeastern Ukraine, where the latest in a number of convoys of vehicles and supplies is handed over to help Kyiv’s forces defend against Russia’s invasion
Tom Watling16 March 2024 18:45
This re-election of Putin is a shameless charade and nothing to do with voters’ empowerment
Editorial: With little doubt over the ‘winner’ of this weekend’s Russian presidential election, the West should take heart that Putin finds himself isolated – and as his country recedes into Stalinism, so too does its economic prospects. His impoverishing of the Russian people will prove his undoing
Tom Watling16 March 2024 18:00
Russia’s Medvedev calls protesters at polling stations ‘traitors’
Former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that protesters who have attempted to set fire to voting booths and pour dye into ballot boxes during Russia‘s presidential election were “traitors” helping the country’s enemies.
“This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today,” he said in a Telegram post, referring to Ukrainian attacks.
Tom Watling16 March 2024 17:26
Latvia starts criminal proceedings against an EU Parliament lawmaker suspected of spying for Russia
Media reports in Latvia say that the country’s state security service has started criminal proceedings against an European Parliament lawmaker and a citizen of the Baltic country who is suspected of cooperating with Russian intelligence and security services
Tom Watling16 March 2024 16:47
