Independence Day of Ukraine

What it marks

Independence Day is Ukraine's national holiday. It marks the declaration passed by the Verkhovna Rada, the country's parliament, in 1991, which set Ukraine apart from the Soviet Union. A nationwide vote on 1 December of that year confirmed the step. The holiday lasts a single day and is a public day off across the country. Official events have included fireworks, concerts and parades, and often a military parade in the capital. Awards and honours are handed out, and the president usually gives a speech. Parliament is credited with starting the holiday in 1991.

How the date was settled

Before Ukraine became independent, Ukrainians abroad treated 22 January as their independence day, remembering the 1918 declaration of the Ukrainian People's Republic. Inside the Soviet republic, the first version of the present holiday fell on 16 July: in 1990 parliament adopted a declaration of state sovereignty, and 16 July 1991 was kept as its first anniversary. Once the declaration of independence itself came, in late August 1991, the date changed. A parliamentary decision in 1992 fixed the holiday on 24 August, where it has stayed. The day before, 23 August, has been National Flag Day since 2004.

Parades and marches

A military parade through Kyiv is the best-known feature, though it has not happened every year. In 2021, for the thirtieth anniversary, more than 5,000 troops and 400 tanks and armoured vehicles took part, aircraft flew over the city, naval units trained at Odesa, and soldiers from Poland, Moldova, Slovenia, the United States and Canada joined the march. Delegates from 46 countries attended. Other forms have appeared too: an aviation show at Kyiv's Chaika airfield in 1997, and, in 2016, a March of the Unconquered led by volunteer fighters and the families of those killed, alongside city marches in embroidered shirts called vyshyvanky.

The day since 2022

Russia's full-scale invasion, which began on 24 February 2022, changed how the holiday is kept. That August the culture ministry said there would be no public celebrations, and officials warned people against gathering in large cities. The parade in Kyiv was called off for a tenth time. Instead, wrecked Russian vehicles and guns were put on show along Khreshchatyk, the capital's main street, where the president spoke, and a drone carrying a large Ukrainian flag circled the Motherland Monument. On the same day a strike on a train at Chaplyne in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast killed 25 people. In 2023 destroyed Russian armour was again lined up in central Kyiv.

Changing public feeling

Polling suggests the day was once taken lightly. In 2013 only 12% of Ukrainians picked it as important or a favourite, and a Razumkov Centre survey that year found 61% calling it a holiday, 30.4% an ordinary day off and 6.1% a day that should be worked. By 2021, 37% named it among their favourites. A Kyiv International Institute of Sociology study in March 2024 put the figure at 64%, with Defenders Day close behind at 58%. Researchers linked the rise to the full-scale invasion and the way the war has reshaped how people see the state.

How Independence Day of Ukraine is kept

The day is a public holiday. It usually opens with official ceremonies and a flag raising, followed in many years by a parade or march through Kyiv, with concerts and fireworks later. Visiting troops and foreign delegations have sometimes joined in. In cities around the country people wear embroidered shirts and walk in marches, and families of soldiers killed in the war have taken part in commemorative processions. Since 2022 the programme has been cut back under martial law: no mass gatherings and no parade, but speeches, displays of wrecked Russian equipment and flags on public buildings.

When and where

It falls on the same date each year, 24 August. The date was not always fixed: the holiday was first kept on 16 July 1991, and only in 1992 did parliament settle on 24 August, the day the declaration of independence had been issued the year before. Ukraine's independence was then confirmed by a referendum on 1 December 1991.

It is kept throughout Ukraine, and 24 August is a public holiday nationwide. Kyiv is the centre of the official programme and has hosted most of the parades. Since 2022 Ukrainian communities abroad have also gathered on the day, in cities including Brussels, Prague, Berlin and Athens, to show support for the country.

What Independence Day of Ukraine means

For Ukrainians the date stands for the moment the modern state began, and for the choice made in 1991 to leave the Soviet Union. The blue and yellow flag carries the same weight, flown from buildings and carried in processions. Since the invasion the holiday has become a way of asserting that the country is still there. In 2019 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his speech to call for unity, saying that Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers, whatever their age, gender or religion, should be one people.

Questions people ask about Independence Day of Ukraine

See also

Programmer's DayA professional day for programmers, fixed to the 256th day of the yearBanushA Carpathian cornmeal porridge cooked with sour cream and savoury toppingsBanduraA Ukrainian plucked string instrument played to accompany epic songs and folk balladsVyshyvanka DayAn annual day for wearing traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts across the world

Good reading and sources

• Ukraine conflict: Deadly flare-up on eastern front lineBBC, Article
• Ukrainians mark independence in heart of EuropeDeutsche Welle, Article
• Ukraine conflict: Deadly flare-up on eastern front lineBBC, Article
• Ukrainians mark independence in heart of EuropeDeutsche Welle, Article

• Independence Day of Ukraine on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.