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Three signals from 19 October 2022
Summary
Martial law in annexed territories, a European prize for Ukraine's people and a Rada resolution on Chechnya marked a dense stretch in the war's politics.
What did politics around the war look like on 19 October 2022? Three developments, one in Moscow, one in Strasbourg-linked European institutions and one in Kyiv, pointed in different directions.
Martial law in the annexed territories
On 19 October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced martial law in the recently annexed territories of Ukraine, beginning at midnight on Thursday. He also introduced an "intermediate level of preparedness" in Crimea and in the federal subjects bordering Ukraine.
The measures were set out in two decrees. One covered the introduction of martial law in the territories of the so-called DPR and LPR and in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The other dealt with measures to be taken in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in connection with the decree of 19 October 2022, No. 756. Martial law formally took effect on 20 October 2022, a month after the announcement of mobilisation.
A prize for the people of Ukraine
The same day, the European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize to the people of Ukraine. The award was collective and went to no individual.
Kyiv looks at Chechnya
A day earlier, on 18 October 2022, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a resolution recognising Chechnya as "temporarily occupied" by Russia. The resolution also condemned war crimes committed by Russia during the First and Second Chechen Wars.
Why the day is worth revisiting
Taken together, the three items show the war being handled through legal and political instruments as well as on the battlefield. Moscow formalised a wartime regime in territory it claimed to have annexed and in regions adjoining Ukraine. A European institution gave a symbolic award to Ukrainians collectively. Ukraine's parliament used a resolution to address Russia's earlier conduct in Chechnya.
The Russian decrees were the most concrete of the three, since they changed the legal status of named regions and raised preparedness levels across a swathe of Russian territory. The prize and the resolution were declarations, not operational measures.
