On August 23, 1991, the yellow-and-blue flag was ceremoniously brought into the chamber of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It was this event that laid the foundation for the celebration of Ukraine’s National Flag Day. On January 28, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially adopted it as the National Flag of Ukraine. Today, the Ukrainian flag is known and revered throughout the world. It unites society, serves as a reminder of the nation’s historical journey, and remains a symbol of the strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people. On the occasion of Ukraine’s National Flag Day, we invite you to reflect on the most significant chapters in the history of this national symbol in the Donetsk region.
The history of the Ukrainian flag in the Donetsk region began during the Ukrainian Revolution. On November 20 (November 7 according to the old calendar) 1917, following the proclamation of the Third Universal of the Central Rada, the blue-and-yellow flag was solemnly raised for the first time in the Donetsk region above the building of the Bakhmut County Council. By this act, the Bakhmut County affirmed its recognition of the authority of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and its support for Ukrainian statehood.
Painting: “The First Raising of the Ukrainian Flag in Bakhmut.” Artist: Serhiy Sadchikov
The raising of the flag was made possible by the efforts of the Ukrainian County Council. Its chairman, Roman Illiashenko, handed the blue-and-yellow banner to a Ukrainian detachment under the command of Osavul Dubovyk, whose soldiers hoisted it above the building of the zemstvo administration. This event is confirmed by archival documents, materials from the Bakhmut Local History Museum, and historical research. As early as the spring of 1918, after Bakhmut’s liberation from Bolshevik troops, the Ukrainian flag once again flew over the city.
In the decades that followed, the use of Ukrainian national symbols was banned by the Soviet authorities. It was not until the late 1980s, with the onset of democratic reforms, that the blue-and-yellow flag reappeared in the Donetsk region. The first documented instance of its use in Donetsk dates back to August 20, 1989, during the Founding Conference of the People’s Movement of Ukraine. The flag was first displayed in the hall where the meeting was held, and later, conference participants marched with it through the city streets. This happened a second time on January 22, 1990, on the anniversary of Unification Day. On that occasion, Ukrainian activists gathered in Donetsk near the Taras Shevchenko monument and raised the Ukrainian flag. One of the organizers of the event was civic activist Volodymyr Biletsky. The police confiscated the flag and put pressure on the participants.
As the national-democratic movement gained momentum, the blue-and-yellow flag appeared with increasing frequency at public rallies, cultural and educational events, and miners’ rallies. For example, the all-Ukrainian environmental march “Dzvyn-90” took place under the Ukrainian flag; its route passed through Donetsk, Bakhmut, Kostiantynivka, Druzhkivka, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, and other settlements in the Donetsk region.
In Kramatorsk, the yellow-and-blue flag was raised during a rally in honor of the Kobzar’s birthday—March 9, 1990—which took place in Trade Union Square. At that time, according to Yevheniia Osadcha, the organizer of the Kramatorsk branch of the People’s Movement of Ukraine, the police did everything in their power to prevent the display of national symbols during public gatherings. But on that day, having missed the moment when the flag was raised, law enforcement officers did not intervene. Thus, Kramatorsk witnessed a landmark event without even realizing it.
Ukrainian activists from Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka, Vladislav Marko and Mykola Serov, attest that the flag first appeared among demonstrators in these cities during the May 1, 1990, demonstrations. This is documented both in photographs and in newsreels. At the same time, the Ukrainian flag also appeared in Bakhmut, although the documented fact dates back to November 7, 1990.
A miners’ rally in front of the Artem Palace of Culture, July 11, 1990 (photo courtesy of the Pokrovsk Historical Museum)
On July 11, 1990, in Myrnohrad, during a one-day nationwide miners’ strike, the Ukrainian flag was raised on the Artem Palace of Culture, near which the rally was taking place. At the suggestion of Oleksandr Mryl—co-chair of the strike committee of the Krasnoarmiysk Coal Trust—the flag was hoisted by local members of the Rukh movement.
During the “Along the Cossack Trails” trek, a stop in Kramatorsk, summer 1990 (photo from V. Biletsky’s book *History of the Donetsk Regional Organization of the People’s Movement of Ukraine (1989–1991)
The yellow-and-blue flag appeared in various cities of the Donetsk region and during the “Along the Cossack Trails” cultural hike in the spring and summer of 1991.
And on July 16, 1991, one month before Ukraine’s declaration of independence, activists of the People’s Movement of Ukraine solemnly raised the Ukrainian flag in Sviatohirsk, which became one of the largest patriotic events in the Donetsk region at that time.
Following the adoption of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on August 24, 1991, the blue-and-yellow flag began to be officially raised over the buildings of state authorities and local self-government bodies in the Donetsk region.