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Ukrainian shelling on the Russian border region of Belgorod killed one person on Saturday morning, local authorities said. The news comes after Russian forces carried out an overnight missile strike on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, damaging port infrastructure, the Ukrainian authorities said. Read our live blog for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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5:16pm: Putin ally suggests postponing March presidential election, or excluding rivals
Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia’s Chechnya region and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, proposed on Saturday that a presidential election due next March should either be postponed due to the war in Ukraine or limited to one candidate – Putin.
The state-run RIA news agency said Kadyrov had spoken on Saturday at a rally in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny, put at 25,000 people, to mark Putin’s birthday.
“I propose now, while the ‘special military operation’ is under way, to unanimously decide that we will have one candidate in the elections – Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,” Kadyrov was quoted as saying.
“Or temporarily call off the elections, because there’s no one else who could defend our country today,” added the Chechen strongman, a Putin protege who has raised his public profile since the war began.
Putin has dominated Russia for more than two decades and, having suppressed all significant political opposition, would be all but certain to win an election and, as widely expected, extend his stay in the Kremlin to 2030.
The Kremlin leader, who turned 71 on Saturday, has said he will not announce if he will run before parliament calls the election, which by law it is due to do in December.
3:53pm: Putin launches Russian gas shipments to Uzbekistan
Russian Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced the start of gas supplies to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan, a boost for Russia’s industry hit by a flurry of Western…
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