Putin Says Ukraine Upping Attacks to Interfere With Election

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Ukraine was increasing its attacks on Russian territory to interfere with the upcoming presidential election.
Over the past week, Russia has faced some of the most significant attacks on its territory since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine more than two years ago.
Several oil refineries have been hit in waves of drone attacks, while on Tuesday groups of pro-Ukraine volunteer fighters made up of Russians who oppose the Kremlin said they had broken into the border regions of Kursk and Belgorod in a brazen attack that the Russian authorities claim to have suppressed.
Asked about the attacks in an interview, excerpts of which were published on Wednesday, Putin said: “It’s simple. This is all happening amid failures on the front line.”
“They [Ukraine] did not achieve any of the goals that they set for themselves last year,” he added.
“I have no doubt that the main goal is, if not to disrupt the presidential election in Russia, then to somehow interfere with the normal process,” the state-run RIA Novosti news agency and Rossiya 1 television quoted the Russian leader as saying.
Russia is set to hold its presidential election on March 15-17, with Putin, who has ruled the country since the turn of the century, all but guaranteed to clinch another six-year term as he faces no real opposition on the ballot.
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