Kremlin-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine are voting for a second day of joining Russia in a referendum that US President Joe Biden called “bogus,” AFP reported.

Simultaneously with the start of the vote, representatives of the UN and Ukraine presented what they called “additional evidence of ‘war crimes’ committed by Russian forces, including executions and torture.”

For his part, Biden said that “the Russian referendums are a sham and a false pretext for trying to annex parts of Ukraine by force, which is a flagrant violation of international law.” “We will work with our allies and partners to quickly and costly pay an additional economic price to Russia,” he added.

In this context, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba during the UN General Assembly on Friday that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected.”

The referendum is taking place in the Russian-controlled areas of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east, and in Kherson and Zaporozhye in the south. Referendum organizers in these areas go from house to house to collect the votes of the residents.