Hackers attack the Russian electoral system. Incidents occur during Russian elections in occupied Ukrainian territories. More information in the news blog.
The most important things at a glanceLoading…
Embed
Navalny’s widow calls for protest against election in Russia
5:48 p.m.: The third and final day of the presidential election will take place in Russia on Sunday, and the widow of the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny is calling for a nationwide protest. Yulia Navalnaya is campaigning for opponents of President Vladimir Putin to flock to the polling stations on the last election day at 12 noon (10 a.m. CET). Participants in the “Lunch Against Putin” protest should vote for one of the opposing candidates or invalidate the ballot paper with the words “Navalny” written on it.
Ukraine attacks more Russian oil refineries
5:24 p.m.: Ukraine sets at least one facility on fire with renewed drone attacks on Russian oil refineries in the Samara region. A fire at a refinery owned by the state oil company Rosneft in Syzran in the Samara region was brought under control after several hours, the Emergencies Ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency. The plant can process up to 8.5 million tonnes of crude oil annually or up to 170,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
A drone attack on the Novokuybyshevsky refinery operated by Rosneft in the same region has been foiled, the local governor said. In Ukraine, an insider explains that the SBU secret service also attacked the Kuibyshevsky refinery, which is located directly in Samara. The regional capital is located around 500 kilometers southeast of Moscow and 800 kilometers northeast of the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine is said to have paralyzed the Russian electoral system
1:24 p.m.: The Ukrainian secret service is said to have successfully paralyzed large parts of the Russian electoral system. This is reported by several media outlets, including the Ukrainian news agency “Ukrinform”, with reference to sources from secret service circles.
Cyber experts are said to have caused the online tool used to hold the presidential elections to crash. “The authorities’ website crashed,” Ukrinform quoted the source as saying. “The Russian electoral system has crashed.” The cyber attacks would continue until the end of the election.
Evacuations during the Russian election in Ukrainian areas
11:43 a.m.: Russia is also holding its presidential elections in the occupied territories on Ukrainian territory. There were several incidents, as the Russian nationalist party “United Russia” announced on its channel on the messenger service “Telegram”. United Russia supports current President Vladimir Putin.
“The first day of voting was not without incident – eleven district commissions were evacuated in Starobilsk,” writes party official Denis Miroshnichenko. The authorities’ work was interrupted for an hour and a half. Starobilsk is located in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, but has been under military and political control by pro-Russian forces since 2014.
Putin’s party reports cyber attack
9:02 a.m.: The president will be elected in Russia this weekend. However, “United Russia”, the party that supports President Vladimir Putin, appeared to be having problems as early as Saturday morning.
The party writes on its channel on the messenger service “Telegram” that its website is currently the target of a hacker attack: “The work of non-essential party resources has been temporarily suspended in order to ensure the critical infrastructure of United Russia’s digital services.” We are working on a solution.
Russia claims to have prevented attack on train
8:26 a.m.: According to a report by the state news agency Tass, the Russian domestic secret service FSB has arrested an agent working in Ukraine. The 61-year-old Russian man planned a “terrorist attack” on a railway junction in the Sverdlovsk region in the Ural Mountains.
Russia: Ukraine attacks Russian oil refineries with drones
7:14 a.m.: Fires broke out at two Russian oil refineries, Syzran and Novokuybyshevsk, in the Samara region early on Saturday morning. Several Russian Telegram channels cite witnesses who say drone strikes caused the fires. On Telegram, several channels published videos of a drone circling over the burning refinery in Syzran.
The governor of Samara Oblast, Dmitry Azarov, also speaks of drone attacks. Nobody was injured, he writes on Telegram. Workers at both refineries were evacuated. This information cannot be independently confirmed.
