SIMFEROPOL, Crimea — Russian forces have taken over Ukraine’s main military hospital in Simferopol today and a military transport base in Bakhchysari as the Kremlin’s military operation stayed on the offensive at strategic locations in the peninsula.

The Russian move to consolidate their hold on Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula comes ahead of a referendum on March 16 that will ask voters in the two-million person peninsula to vote for independence from Ukraine and to rejoin Russia.