The former Georgian president, now Odesa governor, Mikheil Saakashvili has voted for the first time in Ukraine, and he rode a bike to the polling station.
"It is very important to go and vote either on a bike, or by foot, but a lot depends on the activity of each of you," he wrote on Facebook in Russian and Ukrainian.
Here's a video of the arrest of the Wookiee in Odesa. He was reportedly detained for "illegal campaigning." It seems to have taken at least four police officers to do it...
Here's an update on the situation in Mariupol:
The head of the Central Election Commission Mykhaylo Okhendovsky said that elections in Mariupol and Krasnoarmiysk can still take place today. According to him, if local election committees accept the ballots and the polling stations open at 6 p.m., the elections can still be recognized as valid, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
"The Mariupol Commission at this time has no way out of this situation, except for one -- accept the ballots, send them to the district election commissions and guarantee that the voting takes place," Okhendovsky said. "Otherwise, there will be a criminal liability under Article 157 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. If elections are not held, the punishment of those responsible may be quite severe -- up to seven years [in prison]."
Okhendovsky emphasized that the Central Election Commission will do its best for Mariupol and Krasnoarmiysk elections to take place today.
"If it doesn't happen, the Verkhovna Rada has the right to set a new election date," Okhendovsky said.
The Ukrainian civil network Opora has created a map of violations during the elections. So far, the organization has noted 960 violations, ranging from illegal campaigning to bribing voters and manipulating ballots.
In other news, here's an update on the flight situation:
Direct flights between Ukraine and Russia have been grounded as new sanctions initiated by Kyiv came into effect.
Flights stopped on October 25, after last-minute crisis negotiations between the two sides failed.
Kyiv announced late last month that it would ban flights by Russian airlines in reprisal for Moscow's March 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Russia called the ban "madness" and said it would mirror the move.
Tens of thousands of passengers will be affected by the bans every month.
They will now be forced to take longer, more expensive routes via third countries, or to brace themselves for a 13-hour trip by train.
(AFP, the BBC, TASS)