Ukraine war updates: Russia heads to the polls; pro-Ukraine groups continue border assault

Russians head to the polls on Friday in a presidential election that is all but certain to grant President Vladimir Putin a fifth term in power.

Voting will take place over three days, though there is no credible opponent to the incumbent leader.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said that Russian attempts to hold elections in occupied territories or to force regional residents to head to the polls would be “illegal” — a sentiment echoed by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg in a separate briefing, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, skirmishes continued Thursday in the Russian border regions of Belgorod and Kursk as three Ukraine-based Russian paramilitary groups — the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Siberia and RDK battalions — seek to break into Russian territory.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that it repelled another attempted incursion in Belgorod on Thursday, but the Freedom of Russia Legion said the assaults would continue until the region is “completely liberated from the troops of the Putin regime.”

Ukraine also shot down 27 Iranian-made drones over seven regions across the country in the early hours of Friday morning, including around the capital, Kyiv’s air force claimed.

Elsewhere, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised interview aired Thursday evening that Russia cannot be allowed to win the war, and doubled down on his refusal to rule out sending troops from NATO countries to Ukraine.

“If Russia were to win, the lives of French people would change. We would no longer have security in Europe. Who can seriously believe that Putin, who has respected no limits, would stop there?” Macron said.