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Flag of Ukraine

Use	National flag and civil and state ensign.
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	January 28, 1992
Design	A blue and yellow bicolor.

The Flag of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Державний Прапор України; translit.: Derzhavnyi Prapor Ukrainy; literally: State Flag of Ukraine) is the Ukrainian nation's national flag. It was officially adopted for the first time in history in 1918 by a short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic. At that time it had already turned into blue and yellow and sported a Tryzub in the upper left corner. The insignia remained unchanged by the successive government of Pavlo Skoropadsky and was later integrated into the Flag of Ukrainian SSR by the Bolsheviks.

Under Soviet rule this flag was forbidden as a symbol of nationalism. The Ukrainian SSR had its own flag. The original yellow-and-blue flag was officially restored in 1992.

Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine states:

...Державний Прапор України – стяг із двох рівновеликих горизонтальних смуг синього і жовтого кольорів.

Translation: The National Flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equal-sized horizontal strips colored blue and yellow.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Return of the national flag 2 Colors 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

Blue and white banners were widely used by Cossacks between 16-18th centuries. This was not the only possible combination, since normally Cossacks would fly their hetman's banners, which were similar to the coats of arms of the nobility. However, yellow and blue were the colours common on coats of arms in Galicia. In fact, the coat of arms of Lviv to the day remains a golden lion on a blue field.

The true starting point of the current national flag of Ukraine can be set in 1848, when during the Spring of the Nations a yellow and blue banner flew over the Lviv magistrate for the first time. Although this move didn't have significant consequences, the newly formed Ukrainian divisions in the Austrian army used yellow and blue banners in their insignia.

It has to be noted that although most Ukrainians identify their flag as "yellow and blue", the current flag in reality is blue and yellow. The whole transition is quite notable. Although in 1848 the flag was indeed yellow and blue (yellow on top, blue at the bottom), in daily work Ukrainian nationalists turned the flag to be able to explain its meaning to a common person. The common explanation of "blue sky above yellow field of wheat" was invented around that time, and, although it has nothing to do with the choice of colours and the history of the original yellow and blue banner, it certainly formed the flag as we know it today.

In the late 19th century, the Austro-Hungarian empire was much more tolerant toward the Ukrainian national movement than the Russian Empire concerning the flag. A lot of literary work was done there, thus spreading the idea to the rest of Ukraine.

Under the influence of Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost years, the individual Soviet republics had strengthened their sense of national unity, which led to the Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This concerned the three Baltic states and Western Ukraine, which were the last territories annexed into Soviet Union. These efforts were accompanied with attempts to restore the respective historical national symbols. In 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR re-established Lithuania's historic coat of arms as the state symbol. The Parliaments of Latvia and Estonia soon followed.

The events in the Baltic countries soon lead to similar processes in Ukraine. Particularly, West Ukraine and Ukrainian SSR's capital Kiev (Kyiv) constantly held political demonstrations with the national yellow-and-blue flags waving above the heads of the demonstrators.

• On March 20, 1990, the town council (mis’ka rada) of Ternopil voted upon the usage and re-establishment of the yellow-and-blue flag and the Tryzub as well as the national anthem Sche ne vmerla Ukrainy. On the same day, the yellow-and-blue national flag was flown for the first time in about 80 years on a governmental building in Kiev, replacing the then official red-and-blue flag of the Ukrainian SSR.

• On April 28, 1990, the Oblast Administration (oblasna rada) of Lvov (Lviv) also allowed the use of the national symbols of Ukraine within the Oblast.

• On April 29, 1990, the yellow-and-blue flag was flown from the Ternopil city theater's flagstaff without the official flag of the Soviet Union hanging above it.

• After July 24, 1990, the yellow-and-blue flag was flown for the first time over an official governmental building of the Kiev City Council on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti square of the Khreschatyk street.

• After the declaration of independence of Ukraine on August 24, 1991, the national yellow-and-blue flag flew for the first time over the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) building on September 4, 1991.

Scheme	Blue	Yellow
Pantone[1]	285 C	108 C
RGB[1]	58-117-196	249-221-22

• List of flags of Ukraine

• fotw.net - Flags of Ukraine

1. ^ ^{a b} vexilla mundi. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.

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