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139-552: The battalion was initially formed by Russian-speaking Ukrainians from the Donbas who opposed the separatist movement. It is one of the most notable volunteer battalions , recognized as a highly-effective combat unit during the war in Donbas . The battalion is known for its balaclavas to hide their identity from pro-Russian sympathizers and to create a sense of mystery and fear. The balaclavas and (occasionally) black fatigues led to

278-627: A veche (a popular assembly ) in Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). He called on participants to join the battalion to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity. About 600 people arrived at the Novy Petrovtsy training range, a base of Ukrainian Army Unit 3027, on the first day of recruitment. After this, several more volunteer enrollments were held in the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. During an enrollment on 8 June 2014, it

417-493: A nationalistic agenda ." A proposal to repeal the law was vetoed on 28 February 2014 by acting president Oleksandr Turchynov . On 28 February 2018 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled the 2012 law on minority languages unconstitutional. On September 25, 2017, a new law on education was signed by President Petro Poroshenko (draft approved by Rada on September 5, 2017) which says that Ukrainian language

556-477: A 100,000-strong demonstration where over 320 national flags were flown. Afterwards, similar demonstrations with Ukrainian flags took place across the entire Russian Empire, even beyond ethnic Ukrainian lands. 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. The blue-yellow flag

695-761: A 1997 treaty between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Russia recognized Ukraine's borders and accepted Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became an independent state. This independence was supported by the referendum in all regions of Ukrainian SSR, including those with large Russian populations. A study of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine found that in 1991, 75% of ethnic Russians in Ukraine no longer identified themselves with

834-648: A Donbas Battalion soldier was killed. A separatist barracks was destroyed in Shyrokyne on 9 April by the Azov Regiment and the Donbas Battalion during their response to a Russian mercenary attack. After the 25 April bombardment of an ambulance near Shyrokyne, a wounded battalion soldier died on the way to hospital. On 2 May, another attack by pro-Russian separatists was defeated by the battalion; three military personnel were wounded. At 13:05, during

973-416: A battle, a battalion soldier was wounded in the head by sniper fire. During 3 May fighting in Shyrokyne, a battalion soldier was killed. On 24 May, in Shyrokyne, a battalion soldier was killed and another wounded. During the night of 26 May, a battalion anti-tank platoon destroyed a Kamaz carrying separatist troops and ammunition; one battalion soldier was wounded. On 19 July in Shyrokyne, the battalion seized

1112-625: A combat coordination exercise. The battalion could not move to the combat area at that time out of fear that prisoners held by the Russians would be executed. On 18 November, the first rotation of the Donbas Battalion to the Peace Valley of Luhansk Oblast took place. They were assigned to a local support point to assist the Armed Forces of Ukraine . The battalion cleared sabotage reconnaissance groups of Russian mercenaries, and supported

1251-595: A damaged BMP-2 from Russian mercenaries and towed it to the Ukrainian Army position. From May to July 2015 in Mariupol , rallies against the city's demilitarization in accordance with the Minsk agreements#Minsk Protocol were held. Demilitarization did not take place, but at the end of July 2015 the battalion was withdrawn from Shyrokyne's front positions. The Donbas and Azov volunteer battalions were replaced by

1390-524: A flag two-thirds of the way up a flagpole; the top of the flag must be at least a flag's height from the top of the flagpole. Black ribbons indicate mourning on banners that can not be lowered to half-mast. The Day of the National Flag in Ukraine is celebrated on 23 August; it began in 2004. Previously, 24 July was National Flag Day in Kyiv. The first ceremonial raising of the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag in modern times took place on 24 July 1990, at

1529-619: A group of unmanned aerial vehicles , was the first informant that the city could be entered. Battalion fighters in Artemivsk took an active role in liberating the city from DPR forces, responding to night-time attacks, building checkpoints, and conducting operations to clear the region. Battalion units patrolled the surrounding areas of Artemivsk and Horlivka . ... During the first (attack try – ed. ) we discovered that not all adjacent battalions, which had to cover their own directions, were present at their places. Some units came, but not in

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1668-683: A mandatory subject of study in all Russian schools, but in many government offices preference was given to the Russian language that gave an additional impetus to the advancement of Russification . The 1979 census showed that only one third of ethnic Russians spoke the Ukrainian language fluently. In 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued the decree on the transfer of

1807-763: A massive movement of Ukrainian settlers to the Sloboda Ukraine region, which converted it from a sparsely inhabited frontier area to one of the major populated regions of the Tsardom of Russia . Following the Treaty of Pereyaslav , Ukrainian Cossacks lands, including the modern northern and eastern parts of Ukraine, became a protectorate of the Tsardom of Russia. This brought the first significant, but still small, wave of Russian settlers into central Ukraine (primarily several thousand soldiers stationed in garrisons, out of

1946-590: A military counter-offensive against the insurgents in April 2014. During this war, major cities like Luhansk and Donetsk have seen heavy shelling. According to the United Nations, 730,000 refugees from the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have fled to Russia since the beginning of 2014. Approximately 14,200 people, including 3,404 civilians, have died from 2014-2022 because of the war. Ruslan Stefanchuk ,

2085-430: A notable fraction of the overall population in the east and south, a significant minority in the center, and a smaller minority in the west. The west and the center of the country feature a higher percentage of Russians in cities and industrial centers and much smaller percentage in the overwhelmingly Ukrainophone rural areas. Due to the concentration of the Russians in the cities, as well as for historic reasons, most of

2224-576: A policy of Ukrainization , to simultaneously break the remains of the Great Russian attitude and to gain popularity among the Ukrainian population, thus recognizing their dominance of the republic. The Ukrainian language was mandatory for most jobs, and its teaching became compulsory in all schools. By the early 1930s attitudes towards the policy of Ukrainization had changed within the Soviet leadership. In 1933 Stalin declared that local nationalism

2363-539: A poll held October 2008, 42.8% of the Ukrainian respondents said they regard Russia as “very good” while 44.9% said their attitude was “good" (87% positive). According to the Institute of Sociology surveys conducted yearly between 1995 and 2005, the percentage of respondents who have encountered cases of ethnic-based discrimination against Russians during the preceding year has consistently been low (mostly in single digits), with no noticeable difference when compared with

2502-487: A population of approximately 1.2 million non-Russians). At the end of the 18th century, the Russian Empire captured large uninhabited steppe territories from the former Crimean Khanate . The systematic colonization of lands in what became known as Novorossiya (mainly Crimea , Taurida and around Odesa ) began. Migrants from many ethnic groups (predominantly Ukrainians and Russians from Russia proper) came to

2641-491: A quarter of a million) was expelled from their homeland in Crimea to Central Asia , under accusations of collaborations with Germans. The Crimea was repopulated by the new wave of Russian and Ukrainian settlers and the Russian proportion of the population of Crimea went up significantly (from 47.7% in 1937 to 61.6% in 1993) and the Ukrainian proportion doubled (12.8% in 1937 and 23.6% in 1993). The Ukrainian language remained

2780-458: A referendum on deciding the future of the region. On 3 March, a number of people, including Russian nationals with "clear Russian accents", who referred to themselves as "tourists", started storming the regional administration building in Donetsk , waving Russian flags and shouting ″Russia!″ and ″ Berkut are heroes!″. The police was not able to offer much resistance, and was quickly overrun by

2919-694: A result, many notable Russians moved to Ukraine to avoid political prosecution in Russia. Notable examples are Ilya Ponomaryov (the only member of parliament who voted against the annexation of Crimea), journalists Matvey Ganapolsky , Arkadiy Babchenko , Evgeny Kiselyov , Alexander Nevzorov and others. According to the statistics presented by the United Nation's Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2014 approximately 140 Russians applied for political asylum in Ukraine. In

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3058-578: A reversed colour arrangement, lighter shades of blue and yellow, and a different aspect ratio . Article 20 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that "the State Flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow colour." (Ukrainian: "Державний Прапор України — стяг із двох рівновеликих горизонтальних смуг синього і жовтого кольорів." ). In addition to the normal horizontal format, many public buildings, such as

3197-919: A self-defense unit in Donetsk Oblast was created. After the first battles with DPR forces, the creation of the Donbas Volunteer Battalion was announced. The commander of the squad was Semen Semenchenko , who announced the recruitment of volunteers for the unit on his Facebook page. Within a few days, about 600 volunteers signed up for the Donbas Battalion; by the end of April, the unit began operation in Donetsk Oblast. Battalion members provided assistance in moving activists who were in danger and collected information about coordinators of pro-Russian rallies and checkpoints. The battalion participated in its first operation to capture and destroy civilian checkpoints on 1 May, destroying

3336-707: A separatist checkpoint in Krasnoarmiysk . Three Kalashnikovs were seized and 15 civilians were captured. The battalion commander was offered a location for a base in Novopidhorodne, at the border of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk Oblasts. After destroying the Krasnoarmiysk checkpoint, the fighters returned to their base. A few hours later, Russian mercenaries arrived in three buses to assault the Donbas base. The Donbas fighters were armed with small-caliber rifles and grenades. The Russian attempt to assault

3475-477: A similar proposal to the administration of Donetsk Oblast was rejected. On 15 April, recruitment of volunteers and officers into the new Donbas Battalion began. A charitable foundation for the battalion was created, and Ukrainians nationwide donated aid and money for the unit's logistical needs. The battalion, based in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, is open to citizens with licensed weapons. In March 2014,

3614-569: A strengthened sense of national identity, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This was particularly true for the three Baltic states and Western Ukraine , which were the last territories annexed into Soviet Union. The national awakening was accompanied by attempts to restore historical national symbols. In 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR re-established Lithuania's national flag and coat of arms as

3753-503: A third in 1947 to leave the territory with a greatly reduced population. A large portion of the wave of new migrants to industrialize, integrate and Sovietize the recently acquired western Ukrainian territories were ethnic Russians who mostly settled around industrial centers and military garrisons. This increased the proportion of the Russian speaking population. Near the end of the War, the entire population of Crimean Tatars (numbering up to

3892-489: A very cold or cold attitude toward Russia, as opposed to only 17 percent who expressed a very warm or warm attitude. Some surveys indicate that Russians are not socially distanced in Ukraine. The indicator of the willingness of Ukraine's residents to participate in social contacts of varying degrees of closeness with different ethnic groups (the Bogardus Social Distance Scale ) calculated based on

4031-585: Is that, since one of the first known coloured depictions of the coat of arms of Kyiv was mainly in yellow-blue colours, this tradition may have existed since the time of the Nordic-Slavic Grand Prince of Kyiv Volodymyr the Great . However, the blue-yellow colouring dates back to Kievan Rus’ , as an early version of the Tryzub , Ukraine's national coat of arms, sported the same colouring as

4170-552: Is the language of education at all levels except for one or more subjects that are allowed to be taught in two or more languages, namely English or one of the other official languages of the European Union . The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. According to the New Europe : The latest row between Kiev and Budapest comes on the heels of a bitter dispute over a decision by Ukraine’s parliament –

4309-540: 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. These were not the only possible combinations, since normally Cossacks would fly their hetman 's banners, which were similar to the coats of arms of

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4448-849: The Dnieper Ukraine . [REDACTED] Flag of the Kingdom of Ruthenia [REDACTED] Flags of the Lwów land banner during the Battle of Grunwald , 1410 [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Banner of the Zaporizhian Sich before 1775 [REDACTED] Flag of the coat of arms of the Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1764) [REDACTED] Flag of the Black Sea Cossack Host in 1803 [REDACTED] Flag of Ruthenian National Guard in 1848 [REDACTED] Variant of

4587-602: The Euromaidan events, regions with a large ethnic Russian populations became the scene of Anti-Maidan protests and Russian-backed separatist activity. After being seized by Russian unmarked troops , the Supreme Council of Crimea announced the 2014 Crimean referendum , and sent a request to Russia to send military forces into the Crimea to "protect" the local population from Euromaidan protesters, which marked

4726-724: The Goryuns around Putyvl , and the Lipovans (a group of Old Believers ) around Vylkove . One of the most prominent Russians in Medieval Ukraine (at that time the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ) was Ivan Fyodorov , who published the Ostrog Bible and called himself a Muscovite . In 1599, Tsar Boris Godunov ordered the construction of Tsareborisov on the banks of Oskol River , the first city and

4865-763: The Imperial Russia , belonged to a single Russian nation, the descendants of the people of Kievan Rus . In the beginning of the 20th century, Russians were the largest ethnic group in the following cities: Kiev (54.2%), Kharkov (63.1%), Odessa (49.09%), Nikolayev (66.33%), Mariupol (63.22%), Lugansk (68.16%), Berdyansk (66.05%), Kherson (47.21%), Melitopol (42.8%), Yekaterinoslav (41.78%), Yelizavetgrad (34.64%), Pavlograd (34.36%), Simferopol (45.64%), Feodosiya (46.84%), Yalta (66.17%), Kerch (57.8%), Sevastopol (63.46%), Chuguev (86%). The first Russian Empire Census , conducted in 1897, showed extensive usage (and in some cases dominance) of

5004-457: The Malyshev plant were displayed, and Dozor-B armored combat vehicles would be supplied to the Donbas Battalion. Semenchenko said that with such vehicles he would be ready to liberate Donetsk, but his battalion never received them. He spoke again at a 29 June veche in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, calling for reform of public authorities and state institutions. A mobilization station was created in

5143-522: The Office of the President and local authorities use a fringed flag on all occasions. Ukrainian flags are customarily displayed continuously in certain locations. The flag is hoisted up to its full staff on the following days: The flag is displayed at half-staff (or half-mast) as a sign of respect or mourning . When done nationwide, such a step is proclaimed by the president. Half-mast means flying

5282-458: The Parliament of Ukraine . At the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , landmarks all over the world were lit up with the colours of the Ukrainian flag, while numerous cities raised the Ukrainian flag in solidarity. Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment , an independent Belarusian volunteer regiment, also adopted the colours of the Ukrainian flag in its insignia. One claimed version

5421-957: The Russian Civil War (1918–1922), the Communist Reds ( Red Army ) and the Anti-Bolshevik Whites ( Volunteer Army ). The October Revolution also found its echo amongst the extensive working class, and several Soviet Republics were formed by the Bolsheviks in Ukraine: the Ukrainian People's Republic of Soviets , Soviet Socialist Republic of Taurida , Odessa Soviet Republic and the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic . The Russian SFSR government supported military intervention against

5560-840: The Russian language to be an official language on a regional level; however, the referendum was annulled by the Kyiv government. Much controversy has surrounded the reduction of schools with Russian as their main language of instruction. In 1989, there were 4,633 schools with Russian as the main instruction language, and by 2001 this number fell to 2,001 schools or 11.8% of the total in the country. A significant number of these Russian schools were converted into schools in with both Russian and Ukrainian language classes. By 2007, 20% of pupils in public schools studied in Russian classes. Some regions such as Rivne Oblast have no schools with Russian only instruction left, but only Russian classes provided in

5699-586: The Russian nation . In the December 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum 55% of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine voted for independence. The return of Crimean Tatars has resulted in several high-profile clashes over land ownership and employment rights. In 1994 a referendum took place in the Donetsk Oblast and the Luhansk Oblast , with around 90% supporting the Russian language gaining status of an official language alongside Ukrainian , and for

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5838-620: The SSU for exchange. The Donbas Battalion and the AFU protected a supply line, and the battalion captured a multi-purpose light-armored vehicle and a 122mm mortar . On 15 February, a battalion company was ambushed in Shirokino ; three soldiers were killed and three injured, one of whom later died. During the 15–16 February battle of Shyrokyne, over 100 separatist troops were killed and 10 armoured vehicles were destroyed by Donbas, Azov and AFU units. In

5977-572: The Siege of Mariupol , Mariupol's deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov said that "Half of those killed by Russian bombing are Russian-origin Ukrainians." Flag of Ukraine 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

6116-709: The Ternopil regional council in Western Ukraine. In 2004 Oleh Tyahnybok , the leader of the "Svoboda" party, urged his party to fight "the Moscow-Jewish mafia" ruling Ukraine. "Svoboda" members held senior positions in Ukraine's government in 2014. But the party lost 30 seats of the 37 seats (its first seats in the Ukrainian Parliament it had won in the 2012 parliamentary election ) in

6255-407: The Ukrainian Marine Corps . When most of the battalion, Semenchenko and second commander Anatoliy Vinogrodskiy were demobilized into the reserve in 2016, it became a non-governmental organization to protect Ukrainian citizens and fight corruption. The battalion began to combat illegal construction and the unauthorized development of green space in Kyiv and its suburbs, expose criminal activity by

6394-442: The Ukrainian People's Republic , which at different periods controlled most of the territory of present-day Ukraine with the exception of Crimea and Western Ukraine. Although there were differences between Ukrainian Bolsheviks initially, which resulted in the proclamation of several Soviet Republics in 1917, later, due in large part to pressure from Vladimir Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders, one Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

6533-487: The Ukrainian parliament . Ukraine has celebrated the Day of the National Flag on 23 August since 2004. Ukrainian law 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 presented according to DSTU 4512:2006 technical specifications: (The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made this standard mandatory for military funeral flags in 2021.) There has been disagreement over

6672-428: The United Nations by adding Ukraine and Byelorussia as member states . The flag change came about because all the Soviet flags were the same. The new Ukrainian flag consisted of red (top, 2/3) and azure (bottom, 1/3) stripes, with the golden star, hammer and sickle in the top left corner. Communist party leaders such as Nikita Khrushchev and Lazar Kaganovich feared using words like 'light blue' and 'blue' in

6811-472: The Verkhovna Rada , use vertical flags. Most town halls fly their town flag together with the national flag in this way; some town flags in Ukraine exist only in vertical form. The proportions of these vertical flags are not specified. When hung like a banner or draped, the blue band should be on the left. When flown from a vertical flagpole, the blue band must face the mast. The flag did not appear on Ukrainian postal stamp issues until 1992, when they depicted

6950-473: The West Ukrainian People's Republic for November 1918 and the Republic of Carpathian Ukraine on 15 March 1939. The argument on the order of colours was taking place in the Ukrainian diaspora as well. In 1949 it was decided that, until Ukraine defined a single state flag, the diaspora would use the blue-and-yellow banner. On 21 April 2011, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law allowing the Victory Banner to be raised on Victory Day. The current Victory Banner

7089-435: The flag of the Ukrainian SSR . In addition, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia shows a flag decorated with a gold star. Ceremonial displays of the flag, such as those in parades or on indoor posts, often use a fringe to enhance the allure of the flag. No specific law governs the use of the fringe. Traditionally, the Army , Guard , Navy and Air Force use a fringed flag for parades , colour guards and indoor displays, while

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7228-514: The 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade on the Bakhmut route. On 15 December, the second rotation took place. From 15 to 25 December 2014, the battalion organized a blockade of Akhmetov humanitarian convoys going to Lugansk People's Republic -occupied territories to push for the exchange of its members held prisoner by Russian troops. Volunteer divisions, including Dnipro-1, Right Sector and Aidar , also participated. Supplies of tobacco and vodka to Russian mercenaries were also blocked. The operation

7367-453: The 5th Assembly of Ukrainian Nationalists. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan army that engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during World War II against Nazi Germany , the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia , and both underground and communist Poland . The group was the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists — Bandera faction (the OUN-B), originally formed in Volyn in

7506-433: The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, said that there is no "Russian ethnic minority" in Ukraine and that "if these people show aggression rather than respect towards Ukraine, then their rights should be correspondingly suppressed." In total, according to a 2007 country-wide survey by the Institute of Sociology, only 0.5% of the respondents describe as belonging to a group that faces discrimination by language. Furthermore, in

7645-413: The Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. This action increased the ethnic Russian population of Ukraine by almost a million people. Many Russian politicians considered the transfer to be controversial. Controversies and legality of the transfer remained a sore point in relations between Ukraine and Russia for a few years, and in particular in the internal politics in Crimea. However, in

7784-409: The DPR side as "traitors". He said the same about those who were serving with DPR soldiers at the checkpoints, accompanying vehicle columns, and guarding administrative buildings. Semenchenko demanded that they hand over their arms and leave Donetsk Oblast by noon the following day, threatening to "eliminate" them if they continued to cooperate with the DPR. By 21 May, the battalion had taken control of

7923-451: The Donbas Battalion and other units participated in the assault on Ilovaysk . The unit entered the city and took up positions at School Number 14 near the railway, as ordered, but other units failed to fulfill their obligations. According to the Verkhovna Rada Temporary Investigative Commission interim report, At 5 am on 17 August, General Yarovyi arrived at the assembly point as well as the Donbas battalion, which immediately began to fulfill

8062-456: The Donbas Battalion fighters and send them to the ATO zone, where we can effectively fight sabotage and reconnaissance groups".}} That month, some members who had been expelled from the battalion due to misconduct began to accuse Semenchenko of criminal behavior. Most battalion members supported him:  ... Each of us does not want a collapse following the further liquidation of our battalion. Many people are ready to fight; our guys are still on

8201-555: The Donbas and Azov Battalions sexually assaulted a man with a mental disability. The victim's health deteriorated, and he was brought to a psychiatric clinic. The issue attracted the attention of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Association. A UN monitoring mission in Ukraine reported that during the 2014 Battle of Ilovaisk in 2014, the battalion participated in the mistreatment and torture of 13 male residents who were locked in school No. 14 from 18 to 28 August and beaten to extract confessions that they were affiliated with rebel forces. After

8340-401: The Donbass pro-Russian separatists, seized the Donetsk Oblast Council building. At the beginning of March, separatist sentiment in Donetsk led to the creation of the oblast's pro- Maidan self-defense forces by pro-Ukrainian citizens to protect pro-Maidan protests calling for the creation of a separatist Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). The force protected Ukrainian citizens from violence by

8479-507: The Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences 43.9% to 52.0% of the total population of Ukraine supports the idea of granting the status of state language to Russian. At the same time, this is not viewed as an important issue by most of Ukraine's citizens. On a cross-national survey involving ranking the 30 important political issues, the legal status of the Russian language was ranked 26th, with only 8% of respondents (concentrated primarily in Crimea and Donetsk) feeling that this

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8618-406: The Little Russian, a contemporary term for the Ukrainian language , in the nine south-western Governorates and Kuban . Thus, when the Central Rada officials were outlining the future borders of the new Ukrainian state they took the results of the census in regards to the language and religion as determining factors. The ethnographic borders of Ukraine thus turned out to be almost twice as large as

8757-442: The Russian special services and separatists. Semen Semenchenko founded a group of local volunteers to defend Ukrainian territorial integrity due to the weakness of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the capitulation of many local officials to the separatists. The Donbas self-defense forces asked the leadership of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and the military commissariat to create a territorial defense battalion. They succeeded only after

8896-405: The Supreme Ruthenian Council, on 15 May 1849 a yellow-and-blue flag hang again on the Rathaus, this time for one day. 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. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 , this flag was used by Ukrainians of

9035-481: The Ukrainian People's Republic as well as the Ukrainian State defined that the upper half would be light-blue, while the lower would be yellow. 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. Already in the 1918 draft of the Constitution of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the order of colours was defined as blue and yellow. The same order could be found in legislative acts of

9174-478: The Ukrainian SSR could choose to send their children whose native language was not Ukrainian to schools with Russian as the primary language of instruction. The territory of Ukraine was one of the main battlefields during World War II , and its population, including Russians, significantly decreased. The infrastructure was heavily damaged and it required human and capital resources to be rebuilt. This compounded with depopulation caused by two famines of 1931–1932 and

9313-427: The Ukrainian volunteers. Because of this, Semen Semenchenko accepted Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov 's proposal to merge his battalion into the National Guard of Ukraine ; this armed the battalion and gave it legal status. It also provided an opportunity to coordinate its actions with armed-forces units, the NGU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On 1 June, battalion commander Semen Semenchenko spoke at

9452-427: The Verkhovna Rada – to pass a legislative package on education that bars primary education to all students in any language but Ukrainian. The move has been widely condemned by the international community as needlessly provocative as it forces the historically bilingual population of 45 million people who use Russian and Ukrainian interchangeably as mother tongues to become monolingual. The Unian reported that "A ban on

9591-570: The Vostok Battalion. Semenchenko reported that four members of the Donbas Battalion were killed; one died from injuries, about 20 were wounded, and an undisclosed number were captured. The Vostok Battalion lost eleven soldiers. After the battle near Karlivka , the battalion leadership learned that Russian fighters had obtained heavy weapons in addition to small arms. It became clear that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were not providing sufficient assistance to Ukrainian volunteer detachments. The armed-forces units, five kilometers from Karlivka, did not assist

9730-401: The administration buildings of four districts: Velikonovosilkivsky, Volodarsky , Dobropolsky and Aleksandrivsky. This operation secured polling stations for the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election . On 22 May 2014, Semenchenko announced that Ukrainian control of Volodarske district had been re-established. On 23 May, Semenchenko's unit was ambushed in Karlivka by a 25-soldier company of

9869-480: The amount expected. The Azov battalion, for example, did not come in full ... Only one IFV of the promised armored vehicles was allocated to the Donbas Battalion, which had a KrAZ provided by volunteers. Other equipment included two CIT vehicles which Donbas fighters retook from Russian mercenaries during the first minutes of the battle. The volunteer battalions accused the Ministry of Defense of failing to provide necessary heavy-weapons support. On 17 August 2014,

10008-713: The area. At the same time, the discovery of coal in the Donets Basin also marked the commencement of a large-scale industrialization and an influx of workers from other parts of the Russian Empire. Nearly all of the major cities of southern and eastern Ukraine were established or developed in this period: Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporizhzhia ; 1770), Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro ; 1776), Kherson and Mariupol (1778), Sevastopol (1783), Simferopol and Novoaleksandrovka ( Melitopol ) (1784), Nikolayev ( Mykolaiv ; 1789), Odessa ( Odesa ; 1794), Lugansk ( Luhansk ; foundation of Luhansk plant in 1795). Both Russians and Ukrainians made up

10147-500: The assault on Ilovaysk. Fierce fighting continued for ten days. On 29 August, leaving Ilovaysk via the Green Corridor, a Ukrainian military group was ambushed and shelled by the Russian rmy. Ninety-eight soldiers were captured, and more than 100 were injured. Official estimates were 366 dead, 249 wounded, and 158 missing during the fighting for Ilovaysk and while leaving the Green Corridor. During September, October and November,

10286-486: The authorities failed to comply with the demands, the Oblast council reserved itself the ″right to ask for help from the brotherly people of the Russian Federation.″ The pro-Russian protests in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine escalated into an armed separatist insurgency, which was backed by Russian special and regular forces. This led the Ukrainian government to launch

10425-475: The base failed because a Ukrainian military helicopter arrived, forcing the attackers to retreat. On 11 May, a subdivision of the battalion stationed in Mariupol assisted the Ukrainian National Guard in the recapture of Mariupol's police station. Four days later, the unit cleared Russian sabotage groups from Velyka Novosilka . Control of the district was returned to Ukraine, and its flag

10564-513: The battalion proved to be unsuitable for military tasks. The battalion reported to 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade headquarters. On 27 January, a battalion company deployed to the battlefield in an early rotation. Four days later, Semenchenko experienced shell shock during the operation to relieve the Svityaz battalion. In January and February 2015, the Donbas Battalion participated in an attack on Russian-fortified areas near Debaltseve . During

10703-613: The battalion was withdrawn from the ATO zone for a combat coordination exercise. Some of the fighters were sent to Zolochiv to undergo NCO training. A large number of volunteers joined the battalion in September, which then deployed to the training camp of the 93rd Separate Mechanized brigade in Cherkaske (which had about 300 recruits). At the end of October, battalion personnel (including the new recruits) were relocated to Kyiv Oblast for

10842-447: The beginning of the Russian annexation of Crimea . Major Anti-Maidan protests took place in other Russian speaking major cities like Donetsk , Odesa , and Kharkiv . After the elected regional parliament of the Donetsk Oblast refused to comply with the demands of the pro-Russian protesters, the secessionists decided to create their own council consisting of unelected separatist individuals, which in its first session voted to conduct

10981-467: The break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, but all were based on the red flag of the October Revolution in Russia and an exact replica of the flags of the neighbouring Russian SFSR . The first flag was red with the gold Cyrillic sans-serif letters У.С.С.Р. (U.S.S.R., acronym for Ukrainskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Sovetskaya Respublika in the Russian language ). In the 1930s, a gold border

11120-582: The building, partially destroyed archives and pushed people out from the building. Their attackers declared that everything in Ukraine belonged to the Ukrainians, so the Russians and the Jews were not allowed to reside or have property there. The building was vandalized during the Papal Visit to Lviv in 2001, then in 2003 (5 times), 2004 (during the Orange Revolution ), 2005, 2006. After

11259-407: The bulk of the migrants – 31.8% and 42.0% respectively. The population of Novorossiya eventually became intermixed, and with Russification being the state policy, the Russian identity dominated in mixed families and communities. The Russian Empire officially regarded Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians as Little , Great and White Russians , which, according to the theory officially accepted in

11398-609: The capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (a crownland of the Austrian Empire ). On 25 June 1848 two blue and yellow banners flew over the city's magistrate (Rathaus) for the first time. It is unknown who hang the banners and the Austrian authorities dissociated themselves from this action, as did the Supreme Ruthenian Council itself. The banners hung for almost a week. At the request of

11537-446: The captives list. Therefore, there is no split in the battalion and will not be. For most of us it doesn’t matter if Semenchenko will still be a commander or not. No matter how we treat Semenchenko, our battalion will always be associated with him. No one will seriously express distrust of Semen and arrange an uprising. On 13 January 2015, two companies of the battalion went to the ATO zone. However, armored vehicles which had been given to

11676-514: The country's largest ethnic minority . This community forms the largest single Russian community outside of Russia in the world. In the 2001 Ukrainian census , 8,334,100 identified themselves as ethnic Russians (17.3% of the population of Ukraine ); this is the combined figure for persons originating from outside of Ukraine and the Ukrainian-born population declaring Russian ethnicity. Ethnic Russians live throughout Ukraine. They form

11815-466: The crowd. The regional council in Luhansk , in which the party of ousted pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovich held an absolute majority, voted to demand granting the Russian language the status as second official language, stopping ″the persecution of Berkut fighters″, disarming Maidan self-defense units and banning a number far-right political organizations like Svoboda and UNA-UNSO . If

11954-421: The eastern outskirts of Shyrokyne with tank cover. On the evening of 16 February, one soldier in a Donbas Battalion platoon was killed and four were wounded. The next night, a battalion column was ambushed and three soldiers were killed. On 7 March, the battalion encountered a Russian Special Forces sabotage-reconnaissance group; three Russians were killed, and others were captured. The Russians opened tank fire, and

12093-694: The election of the president or the death of a prominent politician (whereupon flags are flown at half-mast), can be declared at the discretion of the Cabinet of Ministers . When flags are flown at half-mast, vertical flags are not lowered. 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. The most solid proof of yellow and blue colours can be traced back as far as

12232-608: The fight for Vuglegirsk on 1 February, the battalion lost four soldiers. On 9 February, the battalion and the Armed Forces of Ukraine blocked the Debaltsevo- Artemivsk highway. Three days later, Armed Forces of Ukraine units took control of part of Logvinovo and opened the Artemivsk-Debaltsevo highway; the battalion cleared the village and an adjacent section of the highway. The following morning,

12371-587: The first fortress in Eastern Ukraine. To defend the territory from Tatar raids the Russians built the Belgorod defensive line (1635–1658), and Ukrainians started fleeing to be under its defense. More Russian speakers appeared in northern, central and eastern Ukrainian territories during the late 17th century, following the Cossack Rebellion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky . The uprising led to

12510-401: The first six months of 2015 this number grew by fifty people more. In the same time Ukrainian migration policies are complicated and limit the number of Russians who can successfully apply for a refugee status. The ultra-nationalist political party "Svoboda" has invoked radical Russophobic rhetoric and has electoral support enough to garner majority support in local councils, as seen in

12649-579: The flag used during UNR ( Ukrainian National Republic ) years (1917–1921) with yellow on the top and blue on the bottom. 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. Nonetheless, both governments of

12788-478: The flag with the state coat of arms. Since then, the flag has frequently appeared on stamps. Cinderella stamps of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists were printed outside Ukraine during the Soviet period for patriotic purposes. Traditionally, the flag may be decorated with a golden fringe surrounding the perimeter of the flag, as long as it does not deface the flag proper. The tradition began with

12927-673: The flagstaff of the Kyiv City Council, two years before the flag was officially adopted as the National flag. Since 1992, the Independence Day of Ukraine has been celebrated on 24 August. Following a government decree, the flag must be flown from public buildings on this date and certain other holidays; not all are public holidays. Flags must also be flown on parliamentary election days and regional-specific flag days. The public display of flags to mark other events, such as

13066-537: The historical era they were used in and in accordance with the political scene in Ukraine at the time. The first flag to be used by a head of state of Ukraine was that of Pavlo Skoropadskyi . A standard for the President of the Ukrainian People's Republic in exile appeared around 1930. The current design, the flag of the president of Ukraine , was adopted in 1999. In 2022, the president of Ukraine used

13205-460: The largely Russophone Ukrainian capital, although an estimated 70 percent of Ukraine's population nationwide consider that Russian should be taught at secondary schools along with Ukrainian. The Russian Cultural Center in Lviv has been attacked and vandalized on several occasions. On January 22, 1992, it was raided by UNA-UNSO led by the member of Lviv Oblast Council. UNA-UNSO members searched

13344-1071: The largest cities in the center and the south-east of the country (including Kyiv where Russians amount to 13.1% of the population ) remained largely Russophone as of 2003 . Russians constitute the majority in Crimea (71.7% in Sevastopol and 58.5% in the Autonomous republic of Crimea ). Outside of Crimea, Russians are the largest ethnic group in Donetsk (48.2%) and Makiivka (50.8%) in Donetsk Oblast , Ternivka (52.9%) in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast , Krasnodon (63.3%) and Sverdlovsk (Dovzhansk) (58.7%) and Krasnodon Raion (51.7%) and Stanytsia-Luhanska Raion (61.1%) in Luhansk Oblast , Izmail (43.7%) in Odesa Oblast , Putyvl Raion (51.6%) in Sumy Oblast . There are two notable sub-ethnic groups of Russians in Ukraine:

13483-464: The late October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election and did not return to Ukraine's government . According to 2006 survey by Research & Branding Group (Donetsk) 39% of Ukrainian citizens think that the rights of the Russophones are violated because the Russian language is not official in the country, whereas 38% of the citizens have the opposite position. According to annual surveys by

13622-497: The late evening of 16 February, the Ukrainian military drove armed men who were not identified as AFU soldiers out of one of two heights near Shyrokyne. Earlier, 14 Donbas Battalion fighters escaped from an encirclement of separatist forces in Shyrokyne. On 18 February, near Shyrokyne, mercenary-supported separatists began shelling Ukrainian positions with two mortars . Two hours later, a separatist armed group withdrew towards Novoazovsk . Another illegal armed group moved north-east from

13761-411: The mixed Russian-Ukrainian schools. As of May 2007, only seven schools with Russian as the main language of instruction are left in Kyiv, with 17 more mixed language schools totaling 8,000 pupils, with the rest of the pupils attending the schools with Ukrainian being the only language of instruction. Among the latter pupils, 45,700 (or 18% of the total) study the Russian language as a separate subject in

13900-413: The mop-up operation was halted and the Russians counterattacked with armored troops. In the battles for Logvinovo, the battalion destroyed a Russian platoon, a tank and an IFV ; three soldiers died, and four were wounded. By midday on 13 February, the Donbas battalion and the AFU had killed about 50 separatist fighters near Logvinovo. Seventeen Russian mercenaries were captured, and were later transferred to

14039-628: The national flag since 1848 Both blue-yellow and yellow-blue flags were widely used during the Ukrainian struggle for independence in 1917. 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 . On the territory of Ukraine the national flag was flown for the first time in Kyiv on 29 March 1917 by soldiers. On 1 April 1917, Kyiv saw

14178-892: The nicknames "Men in Black" or "Little Black Men", a Ukrainian analogue of the Russian " Little Green Men ". Anatoliy Vynohrodskyi , a veteran of the former volunteer battalion, announced his intention to revive a volunteer battalion outside the National Guard in October 2016. The new volunteer battalion was never created, but Vynohradskyi became a leaders of the trade blockade with the Russian-occupied territories in eastern Ukraine in January 2017. In February 2014, Donetsk Oblast Militsiya head Roman Romanov ceded his powers to pro-Russian separatists; Pavel Gubarev , leader of

14317-718: The nobility. Also, yellow and blue were the colours common on coats of arms in Galicia . 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 the Nations on 22 April 1848, a blue-and-yellow banner was adopted by the Supreme Ruthenian Council in Lemberg ( Lviv ),

14456-454: The number of incidents directed against any other nation, including the Ukrainians and the Jews. According to the 2007 Comparative Survey of Ukraine and Europe only 0.1% of Ukrainian residents consider themselves belonging to a group which is discriminated by nationality. However, by April 2017 in a public opinion survey conducted by Rating Group Ukraine, 57 percent of Ukrainians polled expressed

14595-507: The official flag colours, as they were the terms used by the Ukrainian diaspora . During the Soviet period, multiple unsanctioned attempts to hoist the national blue-and-yellow flag were made. 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. Under the influence of Mikhail Gorbachev 's policies of perestroika and glasnost , individual Soviet republics gained

14734-485: The original Bohdan Khmelnytsky State incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 17-18th centuries. During World War I , a strong national movement managed to obtain some autonomous rights from the Russian government in Saint Petersburg . However, the October Revolution brought big changes for the new Russian Republic . Ukraine became a battleground between the two main Russian war factions during

14873-463: The party. Those were the "dominant-nation chauvinism", "economic and cultural inequality" of the nationalities and the "survivals of nationalism among a number of nations which have borne the heavy yoke of national oppression". In Ukraine's case, both threats came, respectively, from the south and the east: Novorossiya with its historically strong Russian cultural influence, and the traditional Ukrainian center and west. These considerations brought about

15012-824: The police, and provide legal and media support to political prisoners in July 2016. It blocked rail freight traffic to occupied territories during the Blockade of Trade with Occupants and protected a protest camp on Hrushevskyi Street during the Rally for Political Reform. Donbas Battalion veterans monitor court proceedings concerning volunteer soldiers throughout Ukraine. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that in August and September 2014, eight or ten members of

15151-500: The promotion of symbols of " Communist and National Socialist totalitarian regimes ". Since then, Soviet symbols, like the Victory Banner, have only been allowed in cemeteries. Soviet flags have been flown in territories outside of the government's control after Russia invaded the country in 2022. Throughout the history of Ukraine , various heads of state have used different flags. The designs differ according to

15290-468: The seal of Sviatoslav I of Kyiv (c. AD 945). During the 1709 Battle of Poltava , the Cossacks following Mazepa fought under yellow-blue banners, while their Swedish allies were under yellow ones. Some Cossacks and noblemen had coats of arms in yellow and blue. Ukrainians commonly refer to the flag as "yellow and light blue" (Ukrainian: жовто-блакитний , zhovto-blakytnyi ) —a different version of

15429-406: The shade of blue used in the flag. Both dark blue ( Ukrainian : синій ) and sky blue ( Ukrainian : блакитний ) flags were historically used. When the flag was approved in 1992, the dark blue colour was chosen over sky blue for practical reasons: sky blue flags fade very quickly in the sun. Although the official standard was introduced in 2006, some manufacturers keep producing flags that do not match

15568-498: The side of the people. On 4 June 2014 in Izium , a meeting of Ukraine's political, military and police leadership was held to coordinate the volunteer Donbas and Azov Battalions with other military units. The meeting was attended by Verkhovna Rada chair Oleksandr Turchynov , Minister of Internal Affairs Arseniy Avakov , by representatives of law-enforcement agencies, and commanders of both battalions. Armored vehicles manufactured by

15707-569: The sole official state language of all Ukraine, including Crimea which is populated by a Russian-speaking majority. Repeal of the law was met with great disdain in Southern and Eastern Ukraine. The Christian Science Monitor reported: "The [adoption of this bill] only served to infuriate Russian-speaking regions, [who] saw the move as more evidence that the antigovernment protests in Kiev that toppled Yanukovich's government were intent on pressing for

15846-550: The spring and summer of 1943. Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942. The battle flag of the UPA was a 2:3 ratio red-and-black banner. The flag continues to be a symbol of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. The colours of the flag symbolise 'Ukrainian red blood spilled on Ukrainian black earth'. In 1949, the flag of the Soviet Ukraine was changed once again. The Soviet Union managed to obtain two additional seats in

15985-481: The square, and many volunteers were recorded as joining. After the assembly, the battalion volunteers went to the Presidential Administration. Headed by Semenchenko, they demanded the end of a cease-fire order that prevented them from engaging Russian forces. President Petro Poroshenko assured the military unit that they would soon have an opportunity to go to the ATO zone and fight. A decision

16124-679: The standard. The flag is similar to that of the Austrian state of Lower Austria , the German city of Chemnitz , historical Kingdom of Dalmatia (now Croatia) and the Hungarian city of Pécs , but all of those flags have a darker shade of blue. 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

16263-651: The state symbol. The parliaments of Latvia and Estonia soon followed suit. The events in the Baltic countries soon led to similar patterns in Ukraine. In particular, West Ukraine and the Ukrainian SSR 's capital city of Kyiv were the scenes of near-constant political demonstrations, in which yellow-and-blue flags were waved by demonstrators. The blue and yellow flag was provisionally adopted for official ceremonies in August 1991 following Ukrainian independence , before officially being restored on 28 January 1992 by

16402-411: The surveys taken yearly between 1997 and 2005 consistently indicated that the attitude to the idea of Ukraine joining the union of Russia and Belarus is more positive (slightly over 50%) than negative (slightly under 30%). Since Dignity Revolution the Russian government dramatically increased the anti-opposition campaign which resulted in politically motivated cases against Russian liberal opposition. As

16541-505: The task. The Dnipro-1 battalion was a few hours late. The Azov and Shakhtarsk battalions did not arrive, the commanders of which stated they were not interested in new updates and they would be in place on Monday (18 August). The Donbas Battalion supported by the 6th IFV company under the command of captain Koshuba went to perform tasks without planned support on the three sides. On 19 August 2014, Semenchenko received shrapnel wounds during

16680-582: The time). For a long time, the OUN did not officially have its own flag; however, during the Hungarian and Polish aggression against the Republic of Carpathian Ukraine in 1939, Carpathian Sich, a militarised wing of the OUN, adopted as its flag a design taken from the OUN's emblem – a golden nationalistic trident on a blue background. The flag was finalised and only officially adopted by the organisation in 1964 at

16819-476: The use of cultural products, namely movies, books, songs, etc., in the Russian language in the public has been introduced" in the Lviv Oblast in September 2018. Some authors born in Ukraine who write in the Russian language, notably Marina and Sergey Dyachenko and Vera Kamsha , were born in Ukraine, but moved to Russia at some point. Marina and Sergey Dyachenko moved to California. In March 2022, during

16958-812: The withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the city, three bodies of local civilians were exhumed from a grave behind the school where the battalion had been stationed. Two had signs of firearms wounds, and the third had probably died as a result of shelling. According to the OHCHR, five battalion soldiers were accused of banditry , abduction, armed robbery , extortion, hooliganism and illegal possession of weapons against civilians in 2016 and released. Russians in Ukraine Russians in Ukraine ( Russian : Русские в Украине , romanized :  Russkiye v Ukraine , Ukrainian : Росіяни в Україні , romanized :  Rosiiany v Ukraini ) constitute

17097-414: The yearly sociological surveys has been consistently showing that Russians are, on the average, least socially distanced within Ukraine except the Ukrainians themselves. The same survey has shown that, in fact, that Ukrainian people are slightly more comfortable accepting Russians into their families than they are accepting Ukrainians living abroad . Such social attitude correlates with the political one as

17236-407: Was added to the flag. In 1937, a new flag was adopted, with a small gold hammer and sickle added above the gold Cyrillic serif У.Р.С.Р. (U.R.S.R., for Ukrainska Radianska Sotsialistychna Respublika in the Ukrainian language). The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organisation which as a movement was originally created in 1929 in Western Ukraine (interwar Poland at

17375-402: Was adopted in Russia in 2007. On 20 May 2011, the law was signed by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych . On 17 June 2011, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognised the law as unconstitutional and proposed that the parliament implement required amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine . On 9 April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation on decommunization , banning

17514-602: Was also light blue-yellow and remained the same under the Directorate of Symon Petlura . The flag of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was blue-yellow. The stateless Makhnovshchina , which existed during the Ukrainian War of Independence , used the black flag . Among Ukrainian immigrant organisations, there were proponents of both blue-yellow and yellow-blue flags. Eventually, an agreement

17653-449: Was an important issue. Russian continues to dominate in several regions and in Ukrainian businesses, in leading Ukrainian magazines, and other printed media. Russian language in Ukraine still dominates the everyday life in some areas of the country. On February 23, 2014, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a bill to repeal the 2012 law on minority languages , which—if signed by the Ukrainian president—would have established Ukrainian as

17792-407: Was claiming in 1918. The new borders completely included Novorossiya (including the short-lived Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic ) and other neighboring provinces, which contained a substantial number of ethnic Russians. In his 1923 speech devoted to the national and ethnic issues in the party and state affairs, Joseph Stalin identified several obstacles in implementing the national program of

17931-467: Was decided to send a Donbas Battalion company to the ATO zone. The unit received no vehicles, fuel or adequate equipment. At Semenchenko's request, volunteers, entrepreneurs and ordinary Ukrainians gathered what they could and the company went to the front. On 4 July 2014, a battalion company took part in the liberation of Mykolayivka . After this operation, the Russian mercenaries began to retreat from Slavyansk. The battalion's Yaroslav Markevych , who led

18070-613: 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 . It was later adopted as a state flag by the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic , the West Ukrainian People's Republic , and the Ukrainian State following the Russian Revolution . In March 1939, it was also adopted by Carpatho-Ukraine . However, when Ukraine

18209-603: Was flown at the First Ukrainian Military Congress on 18 May 1917. The official flag established by the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918 was blue-yellow. Instead, they refer to the decision on the Fleet Flag, which was to be light blue–yellow, as an indication that the official flag was light blue–yellow. Also adopted were several other service flags of the Ukrainian People's Republic. The official flag of Pavlo Skoropadsky 's Hetmanate

18348-594: Was made to form special-purpose volunteer battalion Crimea on 19 July, and the Donbas Battalion commander announced the recruitment of volunteers for a new unit two days later. The plan was to first liberate Donbas from Russian mercenaries, then involve the Krym Battalion in the liberation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea from Russian occupation . After a military meeting in Slavyansk , it

18487-519: Was part of the Soviet Union, the use of the bicolor flag was banned, and it was replaced by the flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . This flag featured a red background, with an azure bottom and a golden hammer and sickle, along with a golden-bordered red star on top. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the bicolor flag gradually returned to use before being officially adopted again on 28 January 1992 by

18626-473: Was proclaimed. The Ukrainian SSR was de jure a separate state until the formation of the USSR in 1922 and survived until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Lenin insisted that ignoring the national question in Ukraine would endanger the support of the Revolution among the Ukrainian population and thus new borders of Soviet Ukraine were established to the extent that the Ukrainian People's Republic

18765-541: Was raised over the administration building. Educational work was carried out with the militiamen who had given control of the region to DPR forces. Volnovakha Raion was placed under military occupation, and the Donbas battalion supervised elections. With the region under government control, branches of the largely-defunct Party of Regions and the banned Communist Party were forced to dissolve. On 21 May, battalion commander Semen Semenchenko referred to Donetsk State Automobile Inspection of Ukraine employees who defected to

18904-438: Was reached to use the blue-yellow flag until the issue could be resolved by an independent Ukraine. During Soviet rule, the Ukrainian flag was banned, and anyone displaying it could be criminally prosecuted for "anti-Soviet propaganda". The first flag of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on 10 March 1919, to serve as the symbol of state of Soviet Ukraine . Details of the official flag changed periodically before

19043-698: Was reported that ten soldiers from the Presidential Regiment joined the battalion. On 3 June, while a decision was being made to send volunteer battalions to the anti-terrorist operation zone , the battalion was asked to stand guard near the Verkhovna Rada to support the Internal Troops of Ukraine who could not offer adequate protection. The Donbas fighters faced the Verkhovna Rada building, demonstrating that they were on

19182-523: Was successful; as a result of the blockade and negotiations, 97 soldiers from the battalion who had been captured during the Ilovaysk operation were released on 26 December. The battalion marched to Kyiv on 11 January 2015, demanding to be sent into combat, and a column surrounded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs building. Semenchenko said, "We ask Arsen Avakov, Minister of Internal Affairs, to support

19321-577: Was the main threat to Soviet unity. Consequently, many changes introduced during the Ukrainization period were reversed: Russian language schools, libraries and newspapers were restored and even increased in number. Changes were brought territorially as well, forcing the Ukrainian SSR to cede some territories to the RSFSR. Thousands of ethnic Ukrainians were deported to the far east of the Soviet Union, numerous villages with Ukrainian majority were eliminated with Holodomor , while remaining Ukrainians were subjected to discrimination. During this period parents in

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