Ukraine’s national flag has two equal horizontal bands, blue above yellow.
The design is a simple bicolour, but its history is layered. Blue and yellow appeared in Ukrainian heraldic and military traditions for centuries, and a blue-and-yellow banner was displayed in Lviv during the Spring of Nations in 1848. The colours later became closely associated with Ukrainian national movements and the idea of an independent Ukrainian state.
The Ukrainian People’s Republic officially established a blue-over-yellow flag in 1918. Soviet rule suppressed the national design, but it reappeared during the late-1980s independence movement. Ukraine restored the flag after declaring independence in 1991, and the current design was formally confirmed in 1992.
A common mistake is reversing the colours. Ukrainian historical and diaspora flags have sometimes used different shades or arrangements, and people often describe the colours in either order. The modern state flag, however, is blue on top and yellow underneath. Romania’s vertical blue-yellow-red tricolour, Kazakhstan’s blue field with a sun and eagle, and Sweden’s yellow Nordic cross are all distinct.