MOSCOW  -  Ukrainian bombardments killed two people and set an oil facility ablaze in Russia on Sat­urday, the second day of show­piece elections guaranteed to cement President Vladimir Putin’s hardline rule. Presiden­tial polls opened this week but voting has been marred by an uptick in fatal Ukrainian aerial attacks and a series of incur­sions into Russian territory by pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups.

Fresh bombardments prompted authorities to close schools and shopping centres in the Belgorod region border­ing Ukraine, undermining the Kremlin’s efforts to isolate Rus­sians from its two-year conflict with Kyiv. Putin, who cast his vote online, has vowed a harsh response to the assaults and accused Ukraine of trying to “disrupt” his bid for another six-year mandate.

The governor of the Belgorod region said air defence systems had downed eight Ukrainian missiles but two residents were killed and others injured.

“A man was driving a lorry when a shell hit him, after which the vehicle crashed into a passenger bus. The people on it were not injured,” Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on social media.

“Another woman was killed in a parking lot where she and her son came to feed the dogs. Medics are fighting for her son’s life,” he added. In a separate post, Gladkov announced that schools and shopping centres in the city of Belgorod and some surrounding districts would close temporarily over the com­ing days, the second time this month. Russia’s defence minis­try earlier said it had downed rockets, missiles and drones in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk that have suffered an uptick in fatal attacks in recent weeks. And it later said Russian forces had fought off more at­tempted infiltrations by “Ukrai­nian militant sabotage and re­connaissance groups”.

Kremlin proxy officials in the occupied Kherson region of southern Ukraine meanwhile said one person was killed and four wounded in a drone attack.

The border attacks were a con­cern for voters hundreds of kilo­metres away in the town of Sergiev Posad outside Moscow, famous for its ornate Orthodox monastery with golden onion domes. Cast­ing her ballot from home with the help of election officials going door-to-door to collect votes from the elderly, 87-year-old Inessa Ro­zhkova said she hoped the polls would bring an end to the conflict with Ukraine.

“Can you imagine how many people died? And now our bor­der villages are suffering. We worry for them,” she said.