It has been 23 years since the blue and yellow flag became the national symbol of Ukraine
28 January 2025 11:56
on January 28, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Resolution “On the State Flag of Ukraine,” officially establishing the blue and yellow cloth as the national symbol. The Ukrainian parliament reminded of this, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
As noted in the report, “for centuries, the blue and yellow flag has been a symbol of freedom, struggle and unity of the Ukrainian people, and with the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian flag flies around the world as a symbol of the invincibility of our nation.”
The Verkhovna Rada recalled the significant moments of recent years that are also associated with the Ukrainian flag:
– In 2022, the yellow and blue flag flew again over the liberated cities and villages of Ukraine.
– In 2023, a 30-meter flag was unfurled near the European Parliament in Brussels.
– In August of the same year, despite the risks to their freedom and lives, a group of Ukrainian activists planted the flag of Ukraine on a mountain range in Crimea.
– In 2024, the flag of Ukraine with the emblem of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade “Edelweiss” flew on Mount Everest and also traveled to space.
A brief history of the blue and yellow flag
In an interview with UP. Life” said that the mention of the blue and gold flag first appeared in historical documents of the fifteenth century during the time of the Galicia-Volyn principality. It was under these colors that in 1410 the knights of the Russian Kingdom fought in the Battle of Grunwald against the Teutonic Order. The coat of arms of the Kingdom then looked like this: a golden lion embroidered on a blue cloth, leaning on a rock.
In the summer of 1848, the Main Ruthenian Council hung a blue and yellow flag on the building of the Lviv City Hall. However, there was no longer a golden lion on it, but only two horizontal stripes.
Subsequently, the blue and yellow colors spread to Naddniprianshchyna Ukraine, and during the Ukrainian Revolution, the bicolor became the official state symbol. The draft flag of the Ukrainian People’s Republic was approved by the Central Rada chaired by Mykhailo Hrushevsky on January 27, 1918.
After the Bolsheviks seized Ukrainian lands, the national symbol was banned. However, in 1939, the flag still managed to be the national flag of Carpathian Ukraine, which gained independence for only 7 days.
In the late 1980s, the Ukrainian symbol began to appear more and more often in public, although it could be punished.
But in 1990, during the “Human Chain” action on the occasion of Unity Day, the authorities no longer touched people with blue and yellow symbols.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union on September 4, 1991, it was raised above the building of the Verkhovna Rada. And in January 1992, the parliament passed a resolution “On the State Flag of Ukraine,” where the symbol was officially approved.
The celebration of the National Flag Day was approved by President Leonid Kuchma’s decree of August 23, 2004. It was on August 23, 1991, that the flag was brought into the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada after the “coup” in Moscow.
The Ukrainian flag is a record holder
In 2014, the largest Ukrainian flag appeared at a stadium in the center of Bakhmut (then Artemivsk), with an area of 2,400 square meters.
In Ternopil, the longest flag, 9.5 km long, was unfurled, and in Kyiv, a flag with the highest flagpole, almost 90 meters high, still stands.
The flag in Dnipro set a record as the largest flag over the city.
