Russian-installed authorities collect votes door-to-door as 'sham referendums' continue
Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities on Saturday as Kremlin-orchestrated votes took place in four occupied regions to create a pretext for their annexation by Moscow.
In cities across Russia, police arrested hundreds of people who tried to protest a partial mobilisation order aimed at beefing up the country's troops in Ukraine.
Other Russians reported for duty, while the foreign minister told the UN General Assembly his country had “no choice” but to take military action against its neighbour.
Ukraine's presidential office said the latest Russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 19.
Oleksandr Starukh, the Ukrainian governor of Zaporizhzhia, one of the regions where Moscow-installed officials organised referendums on joining Russia, said a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the regional capital, killing one person and injuring seven others.
Ukraine and its Western allies say the referendums underway in the occupied parts of its southern and eastern regions have no legal force.
They alleged the votes were an illegitimate attempt by Moscow to seize Ukrainian territory stretching from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula.
Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said the voting “looked more like an opinion survey under the gun barrels,” adding that Moscow-backed local authorities sent armed escorts to accompany election officials and to take down the names of individuals who voted against joining Russia.
“Half of the population fled the Donetsk region because of Russian terror and constant shelling, voting against Russia with their feet, and the second half has been cheated and scared,” Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians in
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