Russia holds referendums in occupied Ukrainian areas despite shelling

Voting in internationally criticized referendums for four Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories to become part of Russia continued into its third day on Sunday despite shelling by Ukrainian forces.
The hastily convened polls were taking place in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as well as in Zaporizhzhya and Kherson in the south, with authorities the Luhansk city of Alchevsk even saying voting could take place in bomb shelters.
According to the pro-Russian authorities, two people died in a hotel near Kherson in a missile attack.
Meanwhile, in the city of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhya region, a polling station had to be moved to another location due to massive shelling from the Ukrainian side, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Neither Ukraine nor the international community recognize the vote under Russia as the occupying power. They are not considered to be legitimate referendums because they are being held without the permission of Ukrainian authorities, under martial law and not according to democratic principles.
The voting is scheduled to run until Tuesday, with the population asked to vote "yes" or "no" on whether the territories should join the Russian Federation.
A positive result for the Kremlin, seen as a foregone conclusion, could see Russian President Vladimir Putin annexing the regions as early as Friday.
Putin has previously said that Moscow would then consider Ukrainian attacks on the regions as an aggression on Russian territory, and would use all means to defend it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the G7 group of leading industrialized democracies have described the referendums as a "sham."
Western countries are preparing a new package of sanctions in response to the possible annexation. In 2014, Russia already annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
Serbia's government, despite its good relations with Moscow, has meanwhile joined the host of Western nations saying they will not recognise the results of the referendums in the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine.
Recognition of these referendums "would completely violate our national and state interests, the preservation of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders," Serbia's Foreign Minister Nikola Selakovic said at a press conference in Belgrade, Serbian media reported.
Selakovic was referring to what Belgrade sees as a parallel between Russia's attack on Ukraine and Serbia's own situation with the issue of Kosovan independence.
The former Serbian province of Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, a move still not recognised by Serbia, but by most other states.