Flag of Ukraine

What the flag of Ukraine looks like

The flag of Ukraine has two horizontal stripes of equal width: blue at the top and yellow at the bottom. The proportions are 2:3. There is no emblem on the national flag. The official shades are a strong azure blue and a bright golden yellow.

A version of the flag with the small coat of arms, the golden trident (tryzub) on a blue shield, is used for some purposes, especially in the military, but the plain bicolor is the national flag. The flag emoji on the Ukraine flag emoji page is the plain bicolor, and you can get image files on the download page.

It is easy to remember by the order: blue over yellow. If the stripes are flipped, with yellow on top, the flag is not the Ukrainian national flag, although it was used in some earlier periods.

Ukraine flag meaning and symbolism

The most common explanation is that blue represents the sky and yellow represents the wheat fields. Ukraine is known for its fertile black soil and grain, so the picture of a blue sky over a golden field is easy to connect with the country's landscape. Another reading is that blue stands for peace and yellow for prosperity.

The colors also have historical roots. The blue and gold combination goes back to medieval times and is linked to the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia, which showed a golden lion on a blue field. They later appeared on the arms of Lviv and other lands of the region. Ukrainian law fixes the design of the flag but does not give an official meaning for the colors, so the readings above are traditional.

The flag is a symbol of Ukrainian statehood and identity, and it is flown on Flag Day on 23 August, the day before Independence Day.

History of the Ukrainian flag

The blue and yellow flag first appeared as a national symbol in 1848. In that year, during the revolutions across Europe, the Supreme Ruthenian Council in Lviv, then part of the Austrian Empire, raised a blue-and-yellow banner as the symbol of Ukrainians in Galicia.

In 1917-1918, after the fall of the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian People's Republic used a blue-and-yellow flag as its national flag, and it was confirmed in 1918. The Hetmanate of Pavlo Skoropadskyi (1918) and the West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918-19) also used the colors, though in different arrangements. During this period yellow-over-blue and blue-over-yellow both appeared, and the blue-over-yellow order was finally accepted.

In the Soviet period, Ukraine was a Soviet republic, and its flag was a red banner with a hammer and sickle and the letters of the republic. In 1949 a stripe of light blue was added at the bottom. The blue-and-yellow flag was banned, and displaying it could be punished. The flag was brought back during the movement for independence in the late 1980s, and in 1990-91 it was raised again over city halls and over parliament.

Ukraine declared independence on 24 August 1991. The blue-and-yellow flag was approved as the state flag that year, and the Supreme Council confirmed it as the national flag on 28 January 1992.

Other flags used in Ukraine

Besides the national flag, some other flags often appear in news and photos. Many units of the Ukrainian army and volunteer groups use battle flags that combine the national colors with a unit emblem or the trident.

The Russian flag has three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red, so the only color the two flags share is blue, and they are not related. Soviet symbols, including the old Soviet flag, were banned in Ukraine by decommunization laws passed in 2015.