President Vladimir Putin on Friday (15 March) vowed a strong military response to a string of Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s border that he described as an attempt by Kyiv to derail his bid for re-election.

Putin addressed his security council on the first day of the three-day vote that is also being held in occupied territories of Ukraine and with no opposition candidates allowed to contest the ballot.

He promised a harsh response to waves of fatal Ukrainian aerial attacks on the frontier regions of Belgorod and Kursk that have also seen fierce fighting in recent days with pro-Kyiv sabotage groups.

Ukraine official: two Russian border regions are now active combat zones

A senior Ukrainian intelligence official said on Thursday (14 March) that armed groups he described as Russians opposed to the Kremlin were pressing an incursion into Russian territory and had turned two border regions into “active combat zones”.

“These strikes by the enemy do not and will not go unpunished,” the long-time Russian leader said in comments aired on state-run television.

“This is an attempt to interfere with the presidential election,” the 71-year-old Russian leader added.

Putin has been in power in Russia since the last day of 1999 and is set to extend his grip on power until 2030.

The Kremlin distributed images showing Putin voting online at his office computer and waving to the camera after issuing the vow to strike back against Ukraine, and as Russian strikes killed at least 19 in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

‘Can’t change anything’

He is running unchallenged, having barred two candidates who opposed the conflict in Ukraine and around one month after his main opponent, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison in unexplained circumstances.

Authorities have encouraged Russians to head to the polls out of patriotic duty, with the Kremlin saying the election will prove the country is fully behind Putin’s Ukraine assault.

AFP journalists at polling stations in the capital interviewed Russians supportive of Putin but also heard from voters who said they were pressured into participating.

“If I did not come to the elections, I would have had problems,” Nadezhda, a 23-year-old ballerina, told AFP.

“Most young people understand anyway that they can’t do anything, that they can’t change anything,” said Nadezhda, who has spent her life living under Putin’s rule.

The first day of voting was marred by acts of vandalism in polling stations, with at least nine arrests for pouring dye into ballot boxes and arson attacks.

In Moscow, 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.