Tuesday is the final day of voting in a series of referendums on joining Russia. The votes, widely seen as rigged and illegitimate, are likely to pave the way for Russia to announce it has annexed more of Ukraine by the end of the week, analysts say.
The votes have been taking place in two pro-Russian, self-proclaimed "republics" in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and southern occupied regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
There have been multiple reports of votes being staged and coercion and aggression being used to force people living in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to vote in favor of joining Russia.
Electoral officials have gone door to door with portable ballot boxes from last Friday until yesterday. Polling stations will only open today, Tuesday, with officials citing security reasons.
In other news, Russia has again insisted it has a "right" to use nuclear weapons if its territory is threatened, and several suspicious leaks have hit the Nord Stream pipelines, with experts not ruling out sabotage.
European officials, meanwhile, are investigating unexplained leaks affecting both the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that bring natural gas from Russia to Europe via the Baltic Sea.
Both Europe and Russia have both said sabotage cannot be ruled out as the cause of the damage, but the finger of blame is being pointed at Moscow — which is yet to directly respond to the accusations.