Today Ukrainians celebrate the Day of the National Flag of Ukraine

Our modern flag was officially approved 30 years ago - in January 1992.

However, the history of our flag stretches back to the times of Kyivan Rus' - that is, hundreds of years, if not more than a thousand years.

Ancient times

Blue and yellow (gold) colours were used on the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. They also got along on the coats of arms of the Ruthenian lands, princes, nobility and cities of the Middle Ages and early modern times.

(Flag of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia)

Starting from the XVI century, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Army used a small number of flags of blue-yellow colours, and since the 1710s, blue-yellow Cossack flags began to prevail among Cossack Kurin' (administrative-military units), such flags were often made of blue cloth with a knight sewn on it in gold or red robes and gold ornaments and fittings.

A blue and yellow flag with a red cross in the middle appears in 1803 as the flag of the Black Sea Cossack Host.

(Flag of the Black Sea Cossack Army of 1803)

Modern times

The modern blue and yellow flag was first publicly recorded on June 25, 1848 in Lviv, which Ukrainians of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria hung over the Lviv City Hall as the national flag. It was after this incident that the blue-yellow flag became increasingly popular among Ukrainians, and after the revolution of 1905 it began to be used in The Dnieper Ukraine.

In 1917-1921, during the Ukrainian Revolution, this flag was the national flag of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian State.

In 1938-1939, the blue and yellow flag was the flag of Carpathian Ukraine, in 1941 — of the Ukrainian State.

Soviet Union and attempts to destroy Ukrainian statehood

The first flag of the Ukrainian SSR, under Lenin's control, was a red flag with a yellow and blue flag in the upper left corner. But in 1919, for ideological reasons, the flag of the Ukrainian SSR began to have only a red colour with an abbreviation of the name of the republic, bordered by a gold frame.

Initially, the flag of Ukraine during the occupation by the Soviet Union looked like this:

Later, in Soviet times, the blue-yellow flag was used clandestinely, its use in the USSR was punishable by imprisonment for two years.

Meaning of the blue and yellow flag

There is a popular interpretation according to which blue symbolizes the sky, and yellow symbolizes the field of wheat. It was the explanation that contributed to the spread of the flag in the Dnieper region in the early twentieth century.

Different varieties of the Ukrainian flag

At the time of the UPR, an inverse flag was used along with the blue-yellow one: yellow-blue. Therefore, even in our times, you can meet supporters of the yellow-blue flag.

Another aspect is the use of light blue instead of the official dark blue in the flag, and the use of different shades of blue and yellow.

Similar flags in the world

The blue-yellow is a symbol of several Polish and German cities, such as German Chemnitz.

In addition, this combination of colours is found on the flag of the state of Dalmatia (now - Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia) and the Austrian land - Lower Austria.

To sum up, those who know history, won't believe in Putin's nonsense like: "Lenin is the founder of Ukraine."

We wish Ukrainians peace, freedom, a good harvest and wealth!