DONETSK, Ukraine – Polling stations have opened in cities across the eastern Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk as residents go to polls to vote for seceding from Ukraine and creating a quasi-independent state in an act declared illegal by the central government in Kyiv and the West but supported by Russia.

The snap vote, hastily organized by Moscow-backed separatists, asks just one question: “Do you support the act of state sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic?” “Yes” or “No” are the only options the ballot offers.