Ukraine's Zelenskyy urges sabotage of Russian army as polls continue

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukrainians in occupied parts of the country to undermine referendums being orchestrated by Russia, and to share information about the people conducting “this farce”.

Rescuers standing close to a destroyed building, following missile strike in Zaporizhzhia, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He also called on residents to try to avoid Moscow’s mobilisation, announced on Wednesday, and to sabotage the Russian army if they are rounded up.

”If you get into the Russian army, sabotage any activity of the enemy, hinder any Russian operations, provide us with any important information about the occupiers – their bases, headquarters, warehouses with ammunition,” he said in his nightly address on Friday evening.

“And at the first opportunity, switch to our positions.”

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities yesterday, as the Kremlin-orchestrated votes continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia, a city in south-eastern Ukraine, said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the city, which sits on the banks of the Dnieper river. One of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others.

The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.

The UK Ministry of Defence said Russia was also targeting the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyy Donets River in northeastern Ukraine following previous strikes on a dam on a reservoir near Kryvyi Rih, causing flooding on the Inhulets River.

“As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points,” the MoD said.

Amid the fighting, voting continued in Kremlin-organized referendums in occupied areas — votes that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as a sham with no legal force.

Five-day votes, which started on Friday, have been set up in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.

The votes are set to wrap up Tuesday when balloting will be held at polling stations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will heed the residents’ will, a clear indication that the Kremlin is poised to quickly annex the regions once the voting is over.

Ukraine and the West said the vote was an illegitimate attempt by Moscow to slice away a large part of the country, stretching from the Russian border to the Crimean Peninsula.

A similar referendum took place in Crimea in 2014 before Moscow annexed it, a move that most of the world considered illegal.

Russia’s defence ministry said that a partial mobilization ordered by Mr Putin aimed to add about 300,000 troops.

Protests against the mobilization that erupted Wednesday in Moscow, St Petersburg and several other Russian cities were quickly dispersed by police, who arrested more than 1,300 people and immediately handed call-up summons to many of them.