page_title: Flag of Ukraine
section_title: Early independence: 1917–1921
hierarchical_section_title: Flag of Ukraine / History / Early independence: 1917–1921
caption_attribution_description: English: Color leaflet-poster by Bohush Shippikh, created after the announcement of the 3rd Universal (Declaration) of the Ukrainian People's Republic in late 1917. Published by the firm "Вернигора" in Kyiv. Українська: Кольорова листівка-плакат Богуша Шіппіха «Згинуть наші воріженьки, як роса на сонці, запануєм і ми браття у своїй сторонці!..», виконана в кінці 1917 р. після проголошення 3-го Універсалу та опублікована видавництвом "Вернигора".
context_page_description: The flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow. The top represents sky and the yellow represents wheat. The combination of blue and yellow as a symbol of Ukrainian lands comes from the flag of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia used in the 12th century. As a national flag, the blue and yellow bicolour has been officially used since the 1848 Spring of Nations, when it was hoisted over the Lviv Rathaus. It was officially adopted as a state flag for the first time in 1918 by the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic and subsequently used by the Ukrainian People's Republic. When Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, the flag was outlawed and, before 1949, there was no official state flag until adoption of the red-azure flag of the Ukrainian SSR. The blue and yellow flag was provisionally adopted for official ceremonies in September 1991 following Ukrainian independence, before finally officially being restored on 28 January 1992 by the parliament of Ukraine.
  Ukraine has celebrated Flag Day each year on 23 August since 2005.
context_section_description: Both blue–yellow and yellow–blue flags were widely used during the Ukrainian struggle for independence in 1917. For the first time in the Russian Empire the blue-yellow flag was flown on 25 March 1917 in Petrograd during a 20,000-strong mass demonstration. On the territory of the Russian Ukraine (Little Russia) the national flag of Ukraine was flown for the first time in Kiev on 29 March 1917 by soldiers. On 1 April 1917 Kiev saw a 100,000-strong demonstration that carried over 320 national flags. After that similar demonstration with Ukrainian flags took place across the whole Russian Empire even beyond the Ukrainian ethnic lands. Numerous famous Ukrainian politician wrote their recollection about the April 1 demonstration such as Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Serhiy Yefremov stating that there were blue-and-yellow flags, while Dmytro Doroshenko claimed that there were yellow-and-blue. The blue-yellow flag was flown at the First Ukrainian Military Congress on 18 May 1917.
  There are reliable sources that indicate that an official flag was declared by the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918 is blue–yellow. Some sources mention that the yellow–blue was adopted by Tsentralna Rada on 22 March 1918. Other sources point out that no hard proof of such decision exists. Instead, they refer to the decision on the Fleet Flag, which was set to be light blue–yellow as an indication that the official flag was light blue–yellow. Also were adopted other service flags of the Ukrainian People's Republic.
  The official flag of Pavlo Skoropadsky's Hetmanate also was light blue–yellow and became the same under Symon Petlura's Directorate. The flag of West Ukrainian People's Republic was blue and yellow. The anarchist free-soviets that existed during the civil war used the black flag.
  Among Ukrainian immigrant organisations there were proponents of both blue–yellow and yellow–blue flags. Eventually, it was agreed to use the blue–yellow flag until the issue was resolved in the independent Ukraine.
caption: UPR flag with the blue and yellow flag, Ukrainian War of Independence, 1918
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