Written by SUSK Canada Summer Job Intern – Daniil Zhelezniak (Saint Mary’s University)
The Flag of Ukraine — History, use, and meaning
On the eve of Independence Day, on August 23, Ukraine celebrates National Flag Day, a civil holiday established in 2004, when government agencies, communities, and the diaspora raise the blue and yellow bicolor and reflect on what it has come to represent or remind. This date also reminds us of the importance of the national flag as a symbol of identity, which has been flying over the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) in Kyiv since the declaration of independence.
The Modern Flag
The national flag of Ukraine consists of two equal horizontal stripes: blue on top of yellow, according to the Legal definition contained in Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine (Constitution of Ukraine, 2021). Thus, the Ukrainian legislation specifies colors, but not a single factory sample is specified. In the same article, the flag is listed among the state symbols along with the coat of arms and the anthem.
In popular interpretation, blue is associated with a clear sky, and yellow (gold) — with the wheat fields of Ukraine – is an image of landscape, harvest, and hope, which appeared before the creation of the state and is very common in many regions of the country (Smith, 2013). Practicality also helped: the dark blue color fades less in the sun than the sky-blue versions that were common centuries ago.
From a historical point of view, the first evidence of a combination of blue and yellow color appears on the coat of arms of the Land of Lviv, Ruthenian Voivodeship: Jan Dlugosz marks the banner of the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, which depicted a “golden lion climbing a cliff on an azure field” (Saprykov, 2002). Cossack flags changed throughout the 16th and 18th centuries, but by the 1700s the yellow–blue color had become widespread (some also associate this palette with the Swedish connections of Hetman Ivan Mazepa) (Kuksa, 2011). Later, this flag became very actively used as a symbol of the Ukrainians’ struggle for their statehood during the Russian Civil War, which will be discussed in more detail below. In 1990, flags of Ukraine began to be hung from the Lviv Oblast, firstly, back in the USSR (Hankevych, 2015). On August 23, 1991, deputies made the blue-and-yellow flag a living symbol, brought it to parliament, and on September 4, 1991, it was hoisted on the roof of the building (Sorokin & Chernichkin, 2022). In 2004, the presidential government set Flag Day for August 23, later, the decree was amended to standardize ceremonies across the country.
Earlier flags: history and meaning
Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia (Kingdom of Rus’)
The Galician-Volyn flag of 1119-1349, one of the parts of the disintegrated Kyivan Rus, is the Ruthenian, Rus’ (Galician) lion – a golden lion on an azure field, which later became the symbol of the city of Lviv (“History of the Galician coat of arms: Jackdaw, lion, or something entirely different?”, 2019). This motif appears on the seals of the dynasty (for example, Yurii I of Galicia) and is preserved in the heraldry of Lviv and the later Western Ukrainian People’s Republic (WUPR) during the Russian Civil War (Danyliak, 2024).
In general, in European heraldry, the lion symbolizes courage and sovereignty; the Ukrainian “Ruthenian lion” embodies these ideals in Galicia, a region of Western Ukraine (Garai, 1973). The azure–gold palette is the deep root of the blue-yellow theme, which was revived in the 19th century.
The Cossack Hetmanate (Zaporizhian Host)
The flag above was used by the Ukrainian Cossacks, who achieved maximum success under it in preserving and protecting the Ukrainian identity and the spirit of freedom. Cossack standards were most often military banners, sometimes including Orthodox saints, crosses, and coats of arms were embroidered. It was used by the Cossack state from 1649 to 1764 (“From Kyivan Rus to Independence: How the Ukrainian flag changed”, 2017). Another key symbol of the Hetmanate, which was later reflected in the state heraldry, was the “Cossack with a musket,” so in 1755, Hetman Kirill Razumovsky ordered regimental banners with this emblem (Grechylo, 2008).
Flags during the collapse of the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian Empires
The Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR), 1917-1921
During the riots of 1917-1918 caused by the Communist Revolution, reverse yellow and blue banners were ubiquitous at rallies and on government buildings, which made them unique (Ollé, 2001). Officially, the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) already used the classic blue and yellow bicolor as its national flag from 1918 to 1921 (Kryzhanivsky, Zasenko, Hajda, Yerofeyev, Makuch, Stebelsky, 2025).
The Ukrainian State (Pavel Skoropadsky’s Hetmanate), 1918
The German-backed Ukrainska Derzhava or Ukrainian State (April–December 1918) also used a blue-and-yellow civilian flag (often a lighter blue) and introduced service banners featuring a trident – in particular, the naval flag with the blue St. George’s Cross and the bicolor flag of canton (Kyselova, 2020). Skoropadsky’s anti-Bolshevik Hetmanate sought continuity with the national colors of the UPR, giving the flags of the armed forces heraldic and naval coloring, consolidating the trident, the legacy of Kyivan Rus.
West Ukrainian People’s Republic (WUPR), 1918–1919
Created on the fragments of Austria-Hungary after the First World War, the WUPR (ЗУНР) also had its own identity in terms of symbols. In November, 1918, the Ukrainian National Rada adopted a law that fixed the state symbols: the coat of arms. It included the already mentioned golden lion on an azure background and the national flag in the standard blue–yellow color (often depicted with a light blue tint) (“Press release on the occasion of the Constitution Day”, 2015). The WUPR deliberately linked the new republic with Galician-Ruthenian heraldry (the lion), adopting bicolor as the all-Ukrainian banner – a bridge between East and West in 1918-1919 (Armstrong, 1963, pp.18-19).
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Flag
After the Communists came to power, in 1919 the Ukrainian SSR adopted a simple red flag with the golden Cyrillic initials “U.S.S.R” (“У.С.С.Р.” or “У.С.Р.Р.”) (Smith, 1975, p.178). The decree of November 21, 1949 and the law of July 5, 1950 completely changed the design: the familiar red field with a light blue stripe along the lower third, as well as the golden hammer and sickle and red star with a gold border in the canton (“Decree No. 1736-X, On approval of the Regulation on the State Emblem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic”, 1981). Partly, it was introduced to distinguish the flags of the Soviet republics at the international level (for example, at the UN, where Ukraine was represented separately). The red field reflects the Bolshevik Revolutionary Red Banner; the hammer and sickle symbolize the unity of workers and peasants; the red star represents the leadership of the Communist Party. There is an opinion that the light blue stripe symbolizes the wealth of the lands, the “might and beauty” of the people, and even recalls the blue banners of Hetman of the Cossacks – Bohdan Khmelnytsky (“Constitution (Basic Law) of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) 1978”, 2004).
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