Europe

Flag of Ukraine

Ukraine is the largest country situated entirely within Europe, a vast nation with a rich agricultural tradition — it was once called the 'breadbasket of Europe' — and significant mineral and industrial resources. Kyiv, one of Eastern Europe's oldest and most historic cities, was the capital of the medieval Kyivan Rus state, a major cultural and political centre of early medieval Europe. Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has a population of around 40 million people.

CapitalKyiv
RegionEurope
Current flag since1991
Main coloursBlue, Yellow
Populationabout 38 million
Areaabout 604,000 km²
Flags in history4

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Ukraine means

Blue and yellow were the colours of the coat of arms of the medieval Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and were used by Ukrainians during the revolutions of 1848. The flag is widely read as a blue sky above golden wheat fields. It was used by the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918, banned in Soviet times, and officially adopted again in January 1992 after independence.

How to recognise it

Horizontal blue-over-yellow — the only European flag with exactly this simple two-colour horizontal split.

Did you know?

Ukraine has the largest territory of any country located entirely within Europe.

Easily confused with

Ukraine's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:

Slovakia

Slovenia

Flag history of Ukraine

Every flag that has flown over Ukraine, from today back through time.

1991–present

Flag of Ukraine

The blue-and-yellow bicolour was restored at independence in 1991, reviving the 1917 design. It is widely read as blue sky above golden wheat fields.

1949–1991

Ukrainian SSR

A red flag with a light-blue band along the bottom third and a gold hammer, sickle, and star. The blue stripe set it apart from other Soviet republic flags.

1917–1921

Ukrainian People's Republic

The blue-over-yellow bicolour served the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic during the revolutionary period, drawing on Ukrainian heraldic tradition.

1649–1764

Cossack Hetmanate

The Cossack Hetmanate, founded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1649, was a self-governing Cossack state that is widely regarded as a forerunner of Ukrainian statehood. Its banners were typically crimson with a cross and Cossack devices. Squeezed between Poland, the Ottomans and Muscovy, it was gradually absorbed by the Russian Empire, which abolished it in 1764.

Related historical states

Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Ukraine.

1858–1896

Russian Empire

The black-yellow-white 'imperial colors' were drawn from the state coat of arms by Alexander II, before Nicholas II demoted them for the white-blue-red tricolor.

1922–1991

Soviet Union

The gold hammer and sickle beneath a red star stood for the worker-peasant alliance. The exact shade and proportions were fixed by Soviet law in 1955.

1918–1921

Free Territory (Makhnovshchina)

The Ukrainian anarchist movement under Nestor Makhno flew black banners reading 'Liberty or Death'. The popular skull-and-crossbones version is a debunked Soviet-propaganda myth.

1649–1764

Cossack Hetmanate

The Cossack state of central Ukraine, founded by Bohdan Khmelnytsky's uprising, flew a crimson banner with a Cossack bearing a musket.

1918

Donets–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic

A short-lived Bolshevik republic in the Donbas industrial basin that tried to stay part of Soviet Russia rather than join Ukraine — dissolved within months.

1917–1918

Crimean People's Republic

One of the first secular Muslim-led republics in the world, flying the sky-blue Kök Bayraq with a golden Tatar tamga, before the Bolsheviks crushed it within months.

1949–1991

Ukrainian SSR

A red flag with a lower azure band and a gold hammer, sickle and star, flown by Soviet Ukraine — which, unusually, held its own seat at the United Nations.

1441–1783

Crimean Khanate

A blue flag with the golden Giray-dynasty tamga; the last remnant of the Golden Horde, it dominated the northern Black Sea steppe until Catherine the Great annexed it.