The flag of Ukraine
Державний прапор України · since 1992
Back to UkraineTwo equal horizontal bands, blue over yellow. The colours were raised as a Ruthenian banner in Lviv in 1848 and became a state flag in 1917 and 1918, then were banned under Soviet rule. The flag returned in 1990 and 1991 and was adopted on 28 January 1992, in a dark blue chosen over sky blue because sky-blue cloth fades quickly in the sun.
At a glance
- Adopted
- 1992
- Proportion
- 2:3
- Colours
- Earlier flags
- 7
The colours
The colours of the flag of Ukraine, in the order it has them
- 0150.2%
Blue
синійUpper band
- HEX
#005BBB- RGB
0 91 187- CMYK
100 52 0 0- Pantone
2935 C- RAL
5005
- 0249.8%
Yellow
жовтийLower band
- HEX
#FFD500- RGB
255 213 0- CMYK
0 2 98 0- Pantone
Yellow 012 C- RAL
1023
No law gives these codes. HEX and RGB are the colour this site draws the flag in; CMYK, Pantone and RAL are the values most often published for it.
Construction
How the flag is drawn
Two horizontal bands of equal width, blue above and yellow below.
- Bands
- Two, horizontal, of equal width
- Vertical display
- The blue band first, on the viewer's left, and facing the mast on a vertical pole. The proportions of vertical flags are not set
Other forms
- Naval ensign
- White with a blue cross of Saint George running to the edges and the national flag in the canton. Adopted on 20 June 2006.
- Presidential standard
- The flag of the President of Ukraine, in its present design since 1991.
- Hanging flag
- Hung like a banner or draped, the blue band is on the left.
Meaning
What each part stands for
- Blue and yellow
- A popular reading has the blue as the sky and the yellow as wheat, which helped the flag spread in Dnieper Ukraine in the early 20th century. The colours are also traced to the arms of Galicia–Volhynia, and a golden lion on blue remains the arms of Lviv
- Order of the bands
- Blue over yellow settled in 1918 and was confirmed by the Ukrainian National Council in exile on 27 June 1949. Calls to invert it recur, and historians answered them in an open letter in August 2014
History
How the flag of Ukraine got here
- 1848
The Ruthenian banner
22 Apr 1848 → 1917
The Supreme Ruthenian Council in Lviv adopted a blue and yellow banner during the Spring of Nations, and two blue and yellow banners flew over the town hall on 25 June 1848. Ukrainians of Dnieper Ukraine used the colours in the revolution of 1905.
- 1917
Ukrainian People's Republic
1917 → 1921
Blue and yellow flags flew in Petrograd on 25 March 1917 and in Kyiv from 29 March. The order of the colours was not settled in 1917; naval and service flags of early 1918 fixed the upper band as blue, and the Hetmanate, the West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Directorate kept that order.
- 1919
Soviet Ukraine
10 Mar 1919 → 1929
A red flag with gold initials of the republic. Displaying blue and yellow could be prosecuted as anti-Soviet propaganda.
- 1929
Ukrainian SSR, 1929
1929 → 1937
The red flag, the initials of the republic changed.
- 1937
Ukrainian SSR, 1937
1937 → 1949
A small gold hammer and sickle added above the initials У.Р.С.Р.
- 1949
Ukrainian SSR, 1949
1949 → 1991
Red over azure, two thirds to one third, with the gold star, hammer and sickle in the upper hoist.
- 1990
The flag returns
24 Jul 1990 → 28 Jan 1992
Raised at Stryi in March 1990 and at the Kyiv City Council on 24 July 1990, the first ceremonial raising in modern times. After independence was declared on 24 August 1991 it flew over the Verkhovna Rada from 4 September 1991.
- 1992
The state flagIn use
28 Jan 1992 → today
Adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in dark blue and yellow and confirmed by the Constitution of 1996. The standard of 2006 set the shades, though sky-blue flags remain in wide use.
The law
What defines it, and who flies it
- 28 January 1992
Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada On the State Flag of Ukraine
A rectangular cloth of two horizontal bands of equal width, blue above and yellow below, in the proportion 2:3. Adopted while the old constitution still described the Soviet symbols.
- 28 June 1996
Constitution of Ukraine, Article 20
A banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.
- 23 August 2004
Presidential Decree No. 987/2004 On the Day of the State Flag of Ukraine
Established the Day of the State Flag on 23 August.
- 2006
National standard DSTU 4512:2006
The technical specification of the flag, with its shades. Made mandatory for military funeral flags by the Cabinet of Ministers in 2021.
In use
Flown continuously on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, on the buildings of the Verkhovna Rada, the government and the presidential administration, and on government buildings, embassies and consulates
Flown at full staff on public holidays, including 23 August, the Day of the State Flag, and 24 August, Independence Day
Flown at half-staff, two-thirds of the way up the pole, for mourning proclaimed nationally by the president, and on Holodomor Memorial Day, the fourth Saturday of November
A gold fringe may surround the flag on ceremonial displays; no law governs it
Coat of arms
The arms of Ukraine
