President Vladimir Putin appealed on Thursday to voters, including in annexed parts of Ukraine, to be united in determining Russia’s future by casting ballots in this week’s presidential election which he is all but certain to win.
“It is vital to underscore our cohesion and resolve and move forward together. Every vote you cast is valued and meaningful,” Putin said in a video address first shown in the Russian far east and reported by national news agencies.
“I therefore ask you in the coming three days to exercise your right to vote.”
Putin, 71 and in power as president or prime minister since 2000, faces three challengers in three days of voting beginning on Friday. None of the challengers has criticized him.
Opinion polls show he is supported by a majority of Russians, with one survey last month giving him 75 percent support.
Two candidates who had hoped to run on a platform of calling for an end to the war in Ukraine, officially described by Russia as a “special military operation,” were ruled ineligible.
In his video remarks, Putin said all voters wanted to see a strong, prosperous and free Russia “in order to raise living standards and the quality of life. And that is how it will be.”
The very act of voting, Putin said, was a “demonstration of patriotic feeling.” And this, he said, was particularly felt in areas of eastern and southern Ukraine now held by Russian forces — some since the launch of the February 2022 invasion, others taken over by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.
Putin sent tens of thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine in February 2022 and, after an unsuccessful initial attempt to move on the capital Kyiv, Moscow’s forces have concentrated their efforts on eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukraine recaptured large chunks of territory in late 2022, but well dug-in Russian troops have been holding their own and last month seized the eastern town of Avdiivka.
Putin said the patriotic choices were clear to residents of areas in Donbas in eastern Ukraine and Novorossiya — a tsarist term for parts of southern Ukraine — who had voted for annexation by Russia in 2022 referendums denounced by Western countries as illegal.
“(They) voted in a referendum in the most difficult of conditions for unification with Russia and will again in the coming days make their choice,” Putin said.
“Those participating in the special operation will also vote. They are an examples to all Russians.”
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Putin asks voters, including in annexed Ukrainian areas, to determine Russia’s future
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Putin asks voters, including in annexed Ukrainian areas, to determine Russia’s future
- Every vote you cast is valued and meaningful,” Putin said in a video address first shown in the Russian far east and reported by national news agencies
Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan
- Assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat — When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian
- No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A pair of attacks on police vehicles by suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
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