Ukrainian flag

Ukraine

Use	National flag and state ensign
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	January 28, 1992 (originally in 1918)
Design	A horizontal bicolour of blue and yellow
Variant flag of Ukraine
Name	Naval ensign
Use	Naval ensign
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	June 20, 2006
Design	White with a blue cotised symmetric cross that extends to the edges of the flag, and with the national bi-colour in the canton.

The state flag of Ukraine (Ukrainian: державний прапор України; translit.: derzhavnyi prapor Ukrainy; literally 'state flag of Ukraine') is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow (Constitution of Ukraine, ).

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-blue flag of the Ukrainian SSR. People who hoisted the blue-yellow flags in the Soviet Ukraine were prosecuted as criminals. 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 August 23 since 2004.

The Law of Ukraine states that the colours of Ukrainian flag are "blue and yellow", but other state bodies have determined the colours. In the table below the colours are given according to the technical specification DSTU 4512:2006:

There is also criticism in regards to shades. There are specialists who argue that, according to rules of heraldry, the current set of colours cannot coexist. The head of the Ukrainian Heraldry Society has pointed out that it is not heraldry, but rather vexillology, that studies flags.