Voting in the Russian-annexed eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk was marred by deadly shelling as Moscow’s drone strike in central Ukraine killed two people on Friday.

“As a result of barbaric overnight shelling ... a direct hit was recorded on a house in the residential sector,” Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, said in a post on Telegram on Friday.

“Three children died. A girl born in 2007, a girl born in 2021, and a boy born in 2014,” he added.

In Vinnytsia, Ukraine’s police said an overnight Russian drone strike killed two people.

“As a result of the enemy attack, a 52-year-old man was killed and his 53-year-old wife died in hospital,” it said.

The Vinnytsia region is more than 400 kilometers from the frontlines.

The head of Ukraine’s army said Friday that Russia had launched a wave of attacks to try to break through further in the area of Avdiivka, a city captured by Russian forces last month.

“The enemy has concentrated its main efforts and has been trying to break through... for several days in a row,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a statement after visiting troops on the frontlines around Avdiivka.

Ukraine’s air force said earlier that Russia fired 27 Iranian-style drones and eight missiles at its territory overnight — including at the Vinnytsia region.

It claimed to have shot them all down.

Russia’s defense ministry said Friday it had downed drones and rockets over the Belgorod border region and the Kaluga region, southwest of the capital Moscow.

“Air defense equipment intercepted and destroyed five drones and two rockets over the territories of the Belgorod and Kaluga regions,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Russia’s three-day presidential election started Friday with veteran leader Vladimir Putin expecting to be voted for another six-year term which will serve as proof of the people’s support for his war on Ukraine.

The Russian national guard said it was fighting off attacks from pro-Ukrainian militias in Kursk, the latest in a string of border clashes.

“I am convinced: you realize what a difficult period our country is going through, what complex challenges we are facing in almost all areas,” Putin said in an address to Russians on the eve of the vote.

“And in order to continue to respond to them with dignity and successfully overcome difficulties, we need to continue to be united and self-confident.”

Polling stations opened in Russia’s easternmost Kamchatka peninsula at 8 a.m. local time on Friday and are set to close at 8 p.m. on Sunday in Kaliningrad — a Russian exclave bordering Poland and Lithuania.

WITH AFP