Residents and civil servants in Belgorod told The Washington Post that they will go to vote in Russia’s presidential election despite attempts by Ukrainian militants to intimidate the population with attacks.
Thus, a medical worker of Belgorod’s territorial self-defence forces told the newspaper that the attacks by the AFU only spurred his motivation to perform his civic duty.
“I have never been really political, I have never voted before, but now I will vote out of principle,” he said.
Vadim Radchenko, chairman of the Belgorod City Council, noted that Ukraine’s strategy of disrupting the vote is having the opposite effect.
“The effect is the opposite: when Russians face such terrorist activity, they do not give up. As a border town that has repelled attacks from outside throughout history, in Belgorod it is felt that we have an entire country behind us. It’s genetic,” said the official.
The publication emphasises that recent attempts by Ukrainian militants to break into the territory of the region have failed.
As President Vladimir Putin said earlier, Ukrainian saboteurs tried to attack in the Belgorod and Kursk directions in order to gain a foothold on Russian territory. The enemy’s forces and means amounted to more than 2,500 personnel, 35 tanks and about 40 armoured vehicles.
The AFU had no success in any of the directions and fled with heavy losses, the head of state stressed.