The national flag of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Державний прапор України, romanized: Derzhavnyi prapor Ukrainy, pronounced [derˈʒau̯nei̯ ˈprapɔr ʊkrɐˈjine]) consists of equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow.

The blue and yellow bicolor flag was first seen during the 1848 Spring of Nations in Lemberg (Lviv), the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria within the Austrian Empire.

When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the bicolor flag gradually returned to use before being officially adopted again on 28 January 1992 by the Ukrainian parliament.

In the table below, the colours are presented according to DSTU 4512:2006 technical specifications:[7] (The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made this standard mandatory for military funeral flags in 2021.

The flag is also somewhat similar to that of the Malaysian state of Perlis and the English county of Durham (without the cross), but has a reversed colour arrangement, lighter shades of blue and yellow, and a different aspect ratio.

(Ukrainian: "Державний Прапор України — стяг із двох рівновеликих горизонтальних смуг синього і жовтого кольорів.").

Cinderella stamps of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were printed outside Ukraine during the Soviet period for patriotic purposes.

A black mourning ribbon is instead attached, either atop the mast if hung from a pole, or to each end of the flag's supporting cross-beams if flown like a banner.

The roots of Ukrainian national symbols come from pre-Christian times when yellow and blue prevailed in traditional ceremonies, reflecting fire and water.

[15] The most solid proof of yellow and blue colours can be traced back as far as the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, in which militia formations from the Ruthenian Voivodeship participated.

Blue-yellow, red-black, crimson-olive and especially raspberry colour banners were widely used by Ukrainian Cossacks between the 16th and 18th centuries.

In fact, the coat of arms of Lviv to this day remains a golden lion on a blue field.

Some put the starting point of the adoption of the current national flag of Ukraine to 1848 when, during the Spring of Nations on 22 April 1848, a blue-and-yellow banner was adopted by the Supreme Ruthenian Council[16] in Lemberg (Lviv), the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (a crownland of the Austrian Empire).

[17] Although this move did not have significant consequences, the newly formed Ukrainian divisions in the Imperial-Royal Landwehr of the Austro-Hungarian Army used blue-and-yellow banners in their insignia.

For the first time in the history of the Russian Empire, the blue-yellow flag was flown on 25 March 1917 in Petrograd during a 20,000-strong mass demonstration.

[16] Numerous famous Ukrainian politicians wrote about the 1 April demonstration, including Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Serhiy Yefremov, noting that there were blue-and-yellow flags, while Dmytro Doroshenko claimed that they were yellow and blue.

[20] The official flag of Pavlo Skoropadsky's Hetmanate was also light blue-yellow and remained the same under the Directorate of Symon Petlura.

The group was the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists — Bandera faction (the OUN-B), originally formed in Volyn in the spring and summer of 1943.

[25] The Soviet Union managed to obtain two additional seats in the United Nations by adding Ukraine and Byelorussia as member states.

Communist party leaders such as Nikita Khrushchev and Lazar Kaganovich feared using words like 'light blue' and 'blue' in the official flag colours, as they were the terms used by the Ukrainian diaspora.

In 1958, an underground group was established in the village of Verbytsia, Khodoriv Raion; its members raised national flags and spread anti-Soviet pamphlets under cover of darkness.

In 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR re-established Lithuania's national flag and coat of arms as the state symbol.

The yellow on the top allegedly represents golden domes (cupolas) of Christian churches and the blue the Dnieper river.

The head of the Ukrainian Heraldry Society, Andriy Grechylo, points to the fact that the discussion about order of colours was taking place as far back as 1918.

[25] During 1918 it was taken into consideration that light blue would lose its shade under sun, therefore it was decided to make the colour darker.

[25] Already in the 1918 draft of the Constitution of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the order of colours was defined as blue and yellow.

[37] On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation on decommunization, banning the promotion of symbols of "Communist and National Socialist totalitarian regimes".