Belgorod Votes for Parliament Under Tight Security as Region Mourns Attack Victims

Parliamentary elections in Russia's Belgorod region, which shares a border with Ukraine, were held on Friday under extraordinary security arrangements, as the area counted the cost of recent attacks.

At least three people, including an eight-year-old child, were killed and 20 others injured in the region over the preceding 24 hours, officials said.

With safety concerns paramount, many residents opted to vote online. Those who requested to cast their ballots at home were visited by polling station workers wearing body armour.

Election officials have undergone training in first aid and in procedures to follow during air-raid alerts. Several types of shelters have been set up at polling stations, with signage directing voters to them.

"We are working in such, unfortunately, extreme conditions," said Ivan Perepelitsa, chairman of a local election commission. "We have only one Russia, our dear fatherland. We will do our job in any conditions, of course. We have concrete shelters, we have body armour."

One resident, who was not named, described voting as a duty. "This is truly our duty because we care about our homeland, especially our small homeland, our Belgorod region, because these are very difficult times for our Belgorod region," the resident said. "Therefore, of course, we want some kind of further development and prosperity."

Voters are casting two separate ballots. Half of the State Duma's 450 seats are being filled through party lists, while the remainder are contested in single-seat constituencies where voters choose individual candidates.

United Russia, the main Kremlin-backed party, is expected to retain its dominance in the lower house alongside a few other parties.

Authorities stretched the vote across the weekend in an effort to lift turnout among the 111 million eligible voters, and also permitted electronic balloting. Polls opened on Friday and are scheduled to close on Sunday.