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March 18 (UPI) -- Ukraine launched waves of attack drones against energy facilities in several regions from Krasnodar in the south to Moscow and Yaroslavi 170 miles northeast of the capital, killing at least two people and injuring 11. The Russian Defense Ministry said 17 drones were deployed in Krasnodar on the Russian side of the Kerch Strait, opposite occupied Crimea, with most of them downed and one sparking a major blaze at the Slovyansk oil refinery as it fell.
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The Slovyansk attack was Ukraine's sixth strike against a Russian oil facility in the past week.
A teenage girl was killed in the southern Belgorod region, close to the Ukraine border, after an apartment building in Grayvoron was struck by shelling and a man was killed when a car park was targeted, injuring 11 others, according to governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
The attacks knocked out power to about a dozen settlements, including Oktyabrsky 17 miles sourest of Bogorod city, where ordnance launched from four drones damaged gas as well as electric lines, Gladkov said.
Russia said the attacks in which Kaluga, Oryol, Rostov and Kursk regions were also targeted were an attempt to disrupt its presidential election, being held Friday through Sunday, but the Defense Ministry said air defenses brought down 18 drones, at least four of them over Moscow.
In a post on social media Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, said five drones headed for the capital were shot down, four of them above the city districts of Domodedovo, Ramensky and Stupino, with no damage or casualties caused.
All three Moscow airports -- Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky -- responded by grounding flights for almost three hours afterward, Russia's state aviation watchdog reported.
Footage posted online appeared to show a gaping hole in the roof of a building at Domodedovo International Airport, 25 miles south of the capital.
Bryansk region, adjacent to Ukraine, was also targeted with a long-range S-200 ballistic missile but Russian air defenses were able to shoot it down, Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz reported.
A Ukrainian drone strike on an occupied part of Zaporizhzhia set ablaze a polling station, one of scores illegally set up for residents of regions annexed or over-run by Russia since February 2022, including Berdiansk, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson.
Hours after it was reported Vladimir Putin had won a third consecutive six-year term, the European Union, United States, Britain, France, Ukraine and 52 other countries issued a joint statement Monday demanding Russia refrain from holding "illegitimate elections in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine."
"We condemn in the strongest terms the Russian Federation's illegitimate attempts to organize Russian presidential elections in temporarily occupied areas within the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine. Holding elections in another U.N. member state's territory without its consent is in manifest disregard for the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.
"Such elections have no validity under international law."
In a briefing to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo condemned the running of the presidential election in illegally occupied areas of Ukraine as "unacceptable."
"Under international humanitarian law, the occupying power -- in this case, Russia -- must uphold the laws of Ukraine in the occupied territories, she said.
