A vicious and lawless drive-by shooting on the streets of Melbourne left two men dead, three injured and bystanders terrified all because of a desire for vengeance.

The murders of Richard Arow and Aaron Osmani, innocent men gunned down outside the Love Machine nightclub, were the result of a petty and mindless act of retribution.

There was laughter and applause as gunman Jacob Elliott was jailed for life on Wednesday, followed by yelling and crying as Justice Andrew Tinney ordered he serve at least 29 years.

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Allan Fares, who drove Elliott, was also jailed for life and must serve at least 26 years before he's eligible for parole.

Their joint intention in the early hours of April 14, 2019 had been to kill and that was put into frightening and devastating effect by their combined actions, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tinney said in handing down the "dreadful" sentence.

A jury found both men guilty of murder, attempted murder and intentionally causing serious injury.

Arow, 28, was waiting outside to enter the Little Chapel St nightclub in Prahran, where 37-year-old Osmani was working as a security guard.

At 3.15am Fares drove Elliott to the club in a stolen Porsche. Fares did several laps past the entrance before Elliott fired four shots from the front passenger seat.

Arow and Osmani were both struck in the head by bullets. They were taken to hospital but suffered catastrophic injuries.

Another bullet struck Semisi Tu'itufu in the shoulder, while the fourth went through one man's arm and into another man.

Tu'itufu rushed to the aid of Arow and Osmani and tried to usher other patrons back inside the club toward safety.

He was so concerned for others that he initially didn't mention that he too had been shot and still lives with the entirely unjustified belief he did not do enough, Tinney said.

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The shooting was sparked by club security's decision hours earlier to eject Elliott's younger brother Ali Maghnie from the club for poor behaviour.

Elliott, then 18, claimed it was their father Nabil Maghnie – who was himself murdered in 2020 – who came up with the plan to let off "warning shots" outside the club.

He claimed he was reluctant to be involved but that Maghnie senior had told him to "shut the f— up" and do it.

Elliott said he pressured Fares, who was initially reluctant but eventually agreed, and he fired four shots in the air.

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But Tinney found Elliott himself had seen fit to launch a public attack on Love Machine in retribution and with desire for vengeance after his brother was kicked out.

He also rejected that Fares was a reluctant participant in deliberately taking away two precious lives.

"You were not some helpless puppet," he said, adding Fares could have refused to participate and had ample opportunity to later back out.

Neither had showed genuine remorse for their brutal and chilling crimes, he found.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation in Russia as the war in Ukraine reaches nearly seven months and Moscow loses ground on the battlefield.

He also warned the West that "it's not a bluff" that Russia would use all the means at its disposal to protect its territory.

The total number of reservists drafted in the partial mobilisation is 300,000, officials said.

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Putin's address to the nation comes a day after Russian-controlled regions in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold votes on becoming integral parts of Russia.

The Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war following Ukrainian successes on the battlefield.

Putin accused the West of engaging in "nuclear blackmail" and noted "statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia".

"To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of NATO countries and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal," Putin said.

He added: "It's not a bluff".

Putin said he has signed a decree on the partial mobilisation, which is due to start on Wednesday.

"We are talking about partial mobilisation, that is, only citizens who are currently in the reserve will be subject to conscription, and above all, those who served in the armed forces have a certain military specialty and relevant experience," Putin said.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised interview on Wednesday that Shoigu assured that conscripts and students will not be mobilised, only those with relevant combat and service experience will.

He said that 5937 Russian troops have been killed in Ukraine so far. Western estimates of Russian military losses stand at tens of thousands.

Shoigu's update on Russian losses is the third time the Russian military offered death toll numbers to the public. The last update came in late March, when the Defence Ministry claimed 1351 Russian soldiers were killed in Ukraine.

The referendums, which have been expected to take since the first months of the war, will start Friday in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

Putin said the decision to partially mobilise was "fully adequate to the threats we face, namely to protect our homeland, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to ensure the security of our people and people in the liberated territories."

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Russian plans to stage the referendums as "noise" and thanked Ukraine's allies for condemning the votes.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia's Security Council chaired by Putin, said referendums that fold regions into Russia itself would make redrawn frontiers "irreversible" and enable Moscow to use "any means" to defend them.

In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said there were lots of questions surrounding the announcements but stressed that they would not change Ukraine's commitment to retake areas occupied by Russian forces.

"The situation on the front line clearly indicates that the initiative belongs to Ukraine," he said.

"Our positions do not change because of the noise or any announcements somewhere. And we enjoy the full support of our partners in this."

The upcoming votes, in the Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions are all but certain to go Moscow's way.

But they were quickly dismissed as illegitimate by Western leaders who are backing Kyiv with military and other support that has helped its forces seize momentum on battlefields in the east and south.

"I thank all friends and partners of Ukraine for today's mass principled firm condemnation of Russia's attempts to stage new sham referenda," Zelenskyy said.

In another signal that Russia is digging in for a protracted and possibly ramped-up conflict, the Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament voted Tuesday to toughen laws against desertion, surrender and looting by Russian troops. Lawmakers also voted to introduce possible 10-year prison terms for soldiers refusing to fight.

If approved, as expected, by the upper house and then signed by Putin, the legislation would strengthen commanders' hands against failing morale reported among soldiers.

In the Russian-occupied city of Enerhodar, shelling continued around Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Ukrainian energy operator Energoatom said Russian shelling again damaged infrastructure at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and briefly forced workers to start two diesel generators for emergency power to the cooling pumps for one of the reactors.

Such pumps are essential for avoiding a meltdown at a nuclear facility even though all six of the plant's reactors have been shut down. Energoatom said the generators were later switched off as main power was restored.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has been a focus of concern for months because of fears that shelling could lead to a radiation leak. Russia and Ukraine blame each other for the shelling.

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The day Lachlan McLaren turned 16 should have been filled with celebration, instead he was ripped away from his loved ones while walking his girlfriend home in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs.

The straight-A student had insisted he'd go to keep her safe, but just minutes into the walk last August, the pair were struck by a white ute.

The rented vehicle had been speeding on the wrong side of the Nepean Highway at Mentone.

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Christopher Hennessey, 32, was high on ice and unlicensed behind the wheel.

He travelled 800 meters at speeds up to 134km an hour, narrowly avoiding multiple head-on collisions before he crossed a median strip and side road, hurtling toward the teenagers.

Lachlan's last act was to move his girlfriend toward safety.

"His gut reaction was to save her, to push her out of danger, and I think that says a lot about the kind of person that he was," Lachlan's mum Michelle McLaren told 9News.

She and his dad Carey remember Lachlan as "a really kind, generous kid who just loved life and had everything to look forward to".

A basketballer and cadet, the Mentone Grammar student had been Year 6 school captain and wanted to be a doctor, forensic scientist and to fight climate change.

"He pretty much could've been anything he wanted to be," McLaren said.

On Monday Melbourne's Country Court was filled with Lachlan's loved ones, even more watching on video link to see his killer sentenced.

When Judge Michael Tinney finished handing down a record 15 years behind bars, there was a cheer and clapping.

Hennessey pled guilty to culpable driving and seven counts of endangering life.

Other than his guilty plea, the court heard he'd shown no remorse.

His license had been suspended multiple times in Queensland and he was a long term user of cannabis and ice.

On the day of Lachlan's death, Hennessey came close to hitting another 11 people in seven vehicles.

Lachlan's girlfriend was also injured.

"You were death on wheels, quite literally," Judge Tinney told Hennessey.

"That's how bad your driving was. It was really a matter of who you might kill or injure."

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He noted Lachlan, a young man "of great promise and potential" should have been blowing out his 16 birthday candles with his family, but instead took his last breath at the crash site.

Lachlan's parents were cooking his birthday dinner but they rushed to the scene after receiving a harrowing phone call.

They were unable to believe what happened.

"I demanded to see who it was under the white blanket," Lachlan's father told 9News.

"Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do was peel the blanket back."

Lachlan was farewelled during one of Melbourne's COVID-19 lockdowns.

With only 10 people allowed to attend his funeral, thousands lined the streets of Mentone to pay their respects.

The hearse given a police escort and driven past Lachlan's favourite places.

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Many also lit candles and stood in their driveways taking part in 'Light for Lachie' a few days after his death.

While the man who killed him will spend at least 11 years behind bars before he's eligible for parole, Lachlan's parents said they've been given a life sentence.

Hennessey was unlicensed when he rented the ute that hit their son.

Lachlan's parents have questioned how someone from Queensland was able to rent a vehicle in Victoria with a suspended licence. 

It's a question they want to spark action.

They are advocating for digital licensing or a national data base to police hire cars.

"There's got to be a change," he said.

"Other families can't go through what we've been through – he was ripped from us in 15 minutes."

After Bruce Saunders was retrieved from a woodchipper, Sharon Graham asked a friend to claim she was still with her ex-partner "because of the insurance", a court has been told.

Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to murder after Saunders, 54, died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.

Graham is accused of asking Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, to kill Saunders and make it look like an accident to claim her ex-partner's $750,000 life insurance policy.

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The jury was on Wednesday shown police video of Saunders' legs protruding from the chipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after he had been clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.

Friend Kim Simpson told Brisbane Supreme Court Graham had split with Saunders but moved back into his Nambour home, living in separate bedrooms.

Graham rang her on the night of Saunders' death telling her "one of the guys had fallen into the woodchipper", Simpson said.

"She very upset," she said.

A "week or two" later Graham asked Simpson to write a letter to her lawyer after earlier mentioning that Saunders "had left everything to her", the court heard.

"She asked me if I could write a letter to her lawyer stating that her and Bruce were in a relationship at the time of his death… because of the insurance," Simpson told court.

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Asked if she wrote the letter, Simpson said: "No, because it wasn't true".

Graham's friend Leonie Whyte was visiting at the time of the tragedy and was told by Koenig and Roser that Saunders' death was an accident.

"They did say that Bruce was messing around with something at the machinery and he wasn't being very careful that day or something to that effect," she told the court.

Graham told another friend that Saunders had been texting her before his phone fell into the woodchipper and he may have died trying to retrieve it, the court heard.

"Can't talk I'm devastated Bruce has passed away. He was texting me when his phone must have drop into the wood mulcher and he must of went to grab," Graham's text to the friend said.

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"Police have said it is tragic accident. Both guys have been vomiting all night.

"As Greg turned around to pick up tree stump he just push button to stop but too late.

"Oh my God I am so sick… Been crying all night. I'm devo."

Graham has been accused of being in a "love quadrangle" with Roser, Koenig and Saunders, plotting the latter's murder for months.

The trial before Justice Martin Burns continues.

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Police have identified a 77-year-old man who remains in critical condition after being struck by a hit-run driver in Queensland.

David "Michael" Dommel was hit by a mystery driver on a road at Mount Rascal on September 5.

He remains in a Brisbane hospital weeks later, with his family holding a bedside vigil.

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They are urging anyone who knows anything to contact police.

Sergeant Stephen Coote of Toowoomba's Forensic Crash Unit said they are looking for anyone who was travelling on Freyling Road between 6am and 7am that day to contact police.

"We believe Michael was struck sometime between 6.20am and 6.50am on Monday, September 5 before he was located lying unconscious on Freyling Road with life threatening injuries by a passing motorist around 7am," Coote said.

"The vehicle involved would have sustained either front end or left hand side damage, so I appeal to anyone who is aware of a vehicle sustaining this type of damage on or 'just after' the 5th to come forward.

"Someone knows something and I urge them to do the right thing, for Michael and for his family. Now is not the time to stay silent."

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After being hit, Drommel was taken to Toowoomba Base Hospital before being airlifted to Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Drommel's wife Debbie said their dog was also struck in the hit-run crash.

"Michael has always been a rock for his family and we are beyond belief that someone could hit him and leave for dead on the side of the road," she said.

"Michael only buried his 96-year-old mother a few weeks ago. This accident not only affects his family in Toowoomba but his three sisters and their families in Melbourne."

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