Russia’s ruling United Russia party said on Saturday it faced a large-scale denial-of-service attack, a form of cyber attack that increases internet usage, on its online presence and suspended non-essential services to repel it, CNBC and News .ro reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is running in Russia’s presidential election as an independent candidate with the support of United Russia, has accused Ukraine of trying to derail an election in which he is virtually certain to win.

This marks Russia’s first presidential election since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and while Putin faces no significant opposition, five regions have already seen arson at polling stations and voter sabotage of registered ballot boxes.

Russia’s election commission said on Friday it faced more than 10,500 cyberattacks on the first day of voting, and a key government website used for online voting was down in some Russian regions for most of the day, Britain’s The Telegraph reported .