Regions start voting in Russia referendums

KYIV, Ukraine — Voting began on Friday in referendums that will decide whether the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine become part of Russia, officials said.

The voting is due to run until Tuesday.

Election officials are taking ballots to people's homes and setting up makeshift polling stations near residential buildings during the first four days of the referendums, according to officials in the regions, who cited safety reasons for the procedures. Tuesday will be the only day when voters will be invited to come to regular polls.

Polls also opened in Russia, where refugees from the regions can cast their votes.

Russia said that it is an opportunity for people in the region to express their views.

"From the very start of the operation … we said that the peoples of the respective territories should decide their fate, and the whole current situation confirms that they want to be masters of their fate," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this past week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Russia would "use all the means at our disposal" to protect itself, an apparent reference to nuclear weapons. "This is not a bluff," he said.

"Encroachment onto Russian territory is a crime which allows you to use all the forces of self-defense," Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The referendums have been denounced by Ukraine.

"Any decision that the Russian leadership may take changes nothing for Ukraine," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.

The voting takes place against the backdrop of incessant fighting in Ukraine, with Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanging fire as both sides refuse to concede ground.

On Friday morning, officials in the Zaporizhzhia region reported a loud blast in the center of Melitopol. An official, Vladimir Rogov, didn't offer any details as to what caused the explosion and whether there was damage or casualties.

Authorities in the Donetsk region accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the city of Donetsk, the region's capital, and the nearby city of Yasynuvata.

Ukrainian officials, in turn, reported new rounds of Russian shelling in various parts of the country. Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine that borders the Kherson region, said explosions rang out in the city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Friday.

Agencies via Xinhua