Heavy fighting as annexation vote in Ukraine enters final day

Russian-organized referendums that could lead to annexing 15% of Ukraine’s territory were due to end on Tuesday as the Kremlin said it made no decisions on closing its borders as the first mobilisation since World War Two prompted some to flee.
Voting in the Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the east and southeast began on Friday and have been dismissed as a sham by Western nations, which have pledged not to recognise the results.
In Russia, the call-up of some 300,000 reservists has led to the first sustained protests since the invasion began, with one monitoring group estimating at east 2,000 people have been arrested so far. All public criticism of Russia’s “special military operation” is banned.
Flights out of Russia have sold out and cars have clogged border checkpoints, with reports of a 48-hour queue at the sole road border to Georgia, the rare pro-Western neighbour that allows Russian citizens to enter without a visa.