Russian Forces Shell Southern Ukraine Amid Sham Referendums In Occupied Territories.

People from Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions vote at a temporary accommodation facility in Novocherkassk, Russia, on September 24.

Russia and Ukraine have traded accusations of shelling in southern Ukraine as four Ukrainian territories partially occupied by Russian forces continued to vote in so-called referendums on joining the Russian Federation

Ukraine's military said early on September 25 that dozens of missile attacks and air strikes had been launched against military and civilian targets in Ukraine's south, including 35 "settlements," over the previous 24 hours.

The same day, Russian-backed officials in the southern city of Kherson said that two people had been killed in a missile strike on a hotel the same day.

Authorities in the city of Alchevsk in the eastern Luhansk region, meanwhile, announced that voting in the mostly Russian-occupied territory could take place in bomb shelters.

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The reports came as the referendums, which have been dismissed as a sham by Ukraine, the West, and the United Nations because they are illegal under international law, entered their third day on September 25.

The voting is taking place in Russian-held areas of Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions.

The voting is widely seen as a way for Moscow to justify the formal annexation of the areas under Russian occupation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week announced a partial military mobilization that could send hundreds of thousands of fresh troops into the war against Ukraine that was launched by Moscow in February.

The call-up came after Russian forces suffered major territorial losses in Ukraine's east as Kyiv launched a major counteroffensive.

Putin has also announced harsher penalties for Russians who dodge the draft or who willingly surrender to Ukrainian forces, making such actions punishable by 10 years in prison.

Ukrainian officials have said that people in Russian-occupied territories have been banned from leaving until the voting finishes on September 27, and that armed groups were entering homes to force people to vote.

Residents of the southern Kherson region told RFE/RL's News Of Azov project reported that people were being offered monetary compensation for a "yes" vote on joining the Russian Federation. Those who agree and fill out a ballot are then given 40,000 rubles (about $690).

RFE/RL was not able to independently verify the claims.

There are no independent observers monitoring the polls, and many of the inhabitants who lived in areas of Ukraine occupied after Russia's unprovoked invasion seven months ago have fled.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on September 24 that regions of Ukraine where the votes are being held would be under Russia's "full protection" if they were annexed by Moscow.

Russia's state-run TASS news agency has reported that the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, could debate legislation to annex the four Ukrainian regions as early as September 29.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa