What the Kremlin's annexation paperwork meant by 3 October 2022
A look back at the legal and diplomatic position in the days around 3 October 2022, after Russia declared four occupied regions annexed.
What stood between Russia's declaration of annexation and its formal completion on 3 October 2022? The answer lay largely in procedure, and in the response from Kyiv in the days before.
On 29 September 2022, the Kremlin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said agreements on annexing the occupied territories of Ukraine would be signed on 30 September. The same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognising the "independence" of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts, which had been proclaimed a day earlier. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he would convene an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on 30 September.
Signature first, ratification later
On 30 September, Putin signed accession treaties to annex the occupied Ukrainian territories. In a speech that day he announced that Russia had annexed four regions occupied during the conflict. Yet the treaties were not yet effective under Russian law: both houses of the Russian parliament had to ratify them first.
That made 3 October 2022 a day in between. Valentina Matviyenko, Speaker of the Federation Council, the upper chamber, had said on 27 September that she expected the annexation to be formalised by 4 October. The parliamentary stage was therefore the remaining step on the Russian side, with the timetable pointing to the days immediately following 3 October.
The referendums behind the treaties
The annexation followed votes staged in late September 2022 by Russian-installed officials in occupied areas of Ukraine. Commentators widely described them as sham referendums, and various countries denounced them. Later, North Korea became the only state to accept the validity of the results.
Kyiv's answer
Ukraine's response on 30 September combined institutional and diplomatic moves. Zelenskyy requested fast-track NATO membership for Ukraine following the annexation announcement. That request, made the same day the treaties were signed, placed the question of Ukraine's security alignment alongside the dispute over territory.
Other pressures on Moscow
The annexation drive unfolded alongside other developments. On 27 September, Kazakhstan said that around 98,000 Russian civilians had entered the country by land and air since Putin ordered a military mobilisation. On 29 September, Putin described the Nord Stream gas leaks as an unprecedented act of international terrorism.
Looking back
By 3 October 2022, the sequence was clear: a declared annexation, treaties signed but awaiting parliamentary ratification, an expected completion by 4 October, and a Ukrainian leadership that had answered with a security council meeting and a bid for NATO membership. The legal formalities in Moscow and the diplomatic positioning in Kyiv were moving in parallel, and the contrast between a signed treaty and one not yet in force defined the day.
