MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Kiev has intensified terrorist actions against Russia in a bid to wheedle more money and weapons from the West, the Russian foreign ministry said.

"Obviously, the corrupt Kiev regime has intensified its terrorist activities in connection with the Russian presidential election to show its enthusiasm to its Western sponsors and scrounge more financial assistance and lethal weapons," it said in a statement.

"The Russian foreign ministry strongly condemns the Kiev regime’s bloody crimes against civilians and civilian infrastructure," it stressed. "All such attempts to influence people’s expression of will by terrorist methods are thoroughly recorded, will be duly investigated and those responsible for them will be punished."

The ministry noted that Russian forces are thwarting the attempt by Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups to violate the Russian border. "In the past two days, two people were killed and 19 were wounded as a result of massive shelling attacks on the Belgorod Region," it said. "On March 16, Ukrainian troops dropped a shell from a drone on a polling station in the village of Blagoveshchenka in the Zaporozhye Region."

"We are convinced that people who live in regions bordering Ukraine will not yield to the provocative acts by the Kiev regime and will come to polling stations to cast their votes for a presidential candidate they chose," the ministry said.