Flag of Ukraine
Ukraine’s flag is two equal horizontal stripes, blue above yellow, as Article 20 of the Constitution describes it. The law gives the colours no meaning: the familiar reading of blue sky over yellow fields is a popular explanation, and Fakty ICTV reports that researchers consider it rather stereotyped.
Easily confused with
- Flag of BarbadosBarbados’s flag has three equal vertical bands, ultramarine, gold and ultramarine, with a black trident head in the centre. The Parliament of Barbados says the blue is the sea and sky and the gold the sand of the beaches; the trident is the sea god Neptune’s, from the old colonial seal, and its shaft is broken for Barbados’s break with its ties as a former colony.
- Flag of SwedenSweden’s flag is blue with a yellow cross, its upright set towards the pole. The flag law gives the colours no meaning; Sweden’s National Archives says they come from the coat of arms, three gold crowns on a blue field.
How to read it
Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine makes the State Flag “a banner of two equally-sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow”. The Verkhovna Rada adopted it on 28 January 1992 (resolution No. 2067-XII), approving the national flag as the State Flag: a rectangular cloth of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper blue and the lower yellow, with the width to length in the ratio 2:3. Neither the resolution nor the Constitution says what the colours stand for.
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Where the blue and yellow come from
Ukrinform, Ukraine’s national news agency, traces the pairing to the arms of Lviv: Daniel of Galicia gave the city, founded in 1256, a coat of arms with a yellow lion on a blue ground. Gold and blue were the colours of the arms of the Kingdom of Ruthenia from the 14th century. In 1848 the Supreme Ruthenian Council in Lviv revived that coat of arms, a golden lion on blue, and blue and yellow flags came into wide use as national flags. Ukrinform dates the flag as it is today to June 1848, in Lviv.
Blue on top or yellow on top
From 1917 to 1921 the blue and yellow flag was the flag of both the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic. Which colour went on top was argued over, sometimes heatedly. Ukrinform writes that historians find no documents showing yellow on top in the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and coloured photographs of the time show both versions. The 1992 resolution put the blue on top.
Readings of the colours
Fakty ICTV calls blue sky over yellow fields the classic and most widespread reading of the colours, and adds that nobody knows for certain why these colours were chosen. Other explanations it gives are the elements of water and fire, and, from Byzantine icon painting, yellow for God and blue for the freedom given to people as a gift from God.
What flag is blue and yellow?
A flag of two equal stripes, blue over yellow, with nothing else on it, is Ukraine’s. Fakty ICTV lists other national flags in the same two colours, among them Sweden’s, Kazakhstan’s, Barbados’s and Palau’s, and the flag of the European Union, twelve yellow stars on blue.
Flag Day on 23 August
Ukraine marks the Day of the State Flag on 23 August, the day before Independence Day, under a presidential decree signed in August 2004, Ukrinform says. Kyiv also marks 24 July at city level: on that day in 1990 a blue and yellow flag was raised over Kyiv City Hall.
Read next
- Next in European flagsFlag of RussiaRussia’s flag is three equal horizontal stripes, white, blue and red from the top, as the federal law on the state flag of 2000 describes it. The law gives the colours no meaning, and the Presidential Library notes that they have no official interpretation today.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AngolaAngola’s flag is red over black with a yellow emblem in the centre: part of a cogwheel, a machete and a five-pointed star. Its constitution says the red is the blood shed by Angolans under colonial oppression, in the liberation struggle and in defence of the country, and the black is the African continent; the cogwheel stands for workers and industry, the machete for peasants, farming and the armed struggle, the star for international solidarity and progress, and their yellow for the country’s wealth.
More european flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Constitution of Ukraine, 1996, Constitution of Ukraine of 28 June 1996 (rev. 2019), Article 20 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 20
- Про Державний прапор України: Постанова Верховної Ради України від 28.01.1992 № 2067-XII, Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 2067-XII of 28 January 1992 on the State Flag of Ukraine, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (zakon.rada.gov.ua), Full text
- Twenty-five important facts about Ukrainian flag, Ukrinform, published for the Day of the State Flag, Ukrinform, Main text
- Більше, ніж символ: як змінювався та що означає прапор України, Natasha Tarchevska, Fakty ICTV, 23 August 2022, Fakty ICTV, Section “Значення кольорів”
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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