On October 18, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognized the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and called it a territory “temporarily occupied by Russia” as a result of armed aggression committed in violation of the UN Charter. The resolution of the parliament was supported by 287 people's deputies.
The document condemns the genocide against the Chechen people and recognizes the sovereignty of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Aleksey Goncharenko said that, as the chairman of the inter-factional association "For a Free Caucasus", he considers this an extremely important decision:
“Putin has been trying to enslave the Chechen people for a very long time, he put his Gauleiter Kadyrov in charge, and now he is forcing the Chechens to fight against the Ukrainians. This is a typical Russian imperialist policy towards other peoples.”
According to the deputy, Russia should be decolonized, and Ichkeria should be free. Goncharenko claims that it was he who submitted to the Rada a resolution recognizing the independence of Ichkeria: "We must take this step and finally put an end to the imperialist policy of Russia."
In September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the indigenous peoples of Russia in Russian. He stated that Dagestanis, Chechens, Ingush, Ossetians, Circassians and other peoples who found themselves under the Russian flag should not die in the "vile and shameful war of Russia." He recorded a video message to the peoples of the Caucasus from the part of Kyiv where the leader of the North Caucasian national liberation resistance, the national hero of Dagestan and Chechnya, Imam Shamil lived in the 1860s. The video sequence showed a memorial plaque with a bas-relief of Shamil and his quote proclaiming the invincibility of truth. Zelensky stressed that Ukraine knows how to honor heroes.
In January 2022, the publication “Kavkaz. Realii” reported on raids to identify images of a wolf on clothes and on personal belongings among young people. The silhouette of the wolf was the coat of arms and was present on the flag of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. At the same time, there were no legal grounds for the seizure of things with wolves, since neither Ichkeria nor its symbols are prohibited by law in Russia. Only the Islamist separatist organization Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan, founded in 1998 by Shamil Basayev and Movladi Udugov, has been officially recognized as terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation.
The self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CHRI) existed from the moment of the collapse of the Soviet Union until January 14, 1994 on part of the territory of the former Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now Chechnya and Ingushetia). CRI declared independence in July 1991, the head of the Executive Committee of the National Congress of the Chechen People (OKCHN) Dzhokhar Dudayev became the first president. Since January 9, 1993, the Russian authorities considered this territory to be the Chechen Republic within the Russian Federation, and Ichkeria was not recognized by any of the UN member states. Because of the declaration of independence by the republic, a military conflict arose, followed by the First Chechen War between the Russian government and Chechen formations. The Russian army tried to return Ichkeria to Russia by force, but in 1996 withdrew its troops from Chechnya. In 2000, during the Second Chechen War, Ichkeria was liquidated as a state and became a republic within Russia.
