Thirty-Five Years of Ukrainian Independence, Each One Harder-Won Than the Last
Thirty-five years ago today, on August 24, 1991, Ukraine's parliament took a decision that would help bring down a superpower: it declared the country independent. The Act of Declaration of Independence was approved in Kyiv while the Soviet Union technically still existed, just days after a failed coup in Moscow exposed how fragile Soviet authority had become. Four months later, voters backed independence decisively in a referendum, with more than 90 percent supporting it. Support exceeded 50 percent in every region, even in Crimea, where 54 percent voted in favor. The new state was Europe's second-largest by territory, had a population of roughly 52 million, and temporarily possessed the world's third-biggest nuclear weapons stockpile.
The fate of those nuclear weapons became one of the defining choices of the country's early independence. Under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agreed to surrender the nuclear arsenal it had inherited from the Soviet Union, transferring the warheads to Russia in return for security assurances. Russia, the United States, and Britain pledged to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and existing borders. The failures exposed by later events have made that agreement a lasting reference point in debates over nuclear disarmament. For governments weighing whether to give up strategic weapons, Ukraine's experience is now impossible to ignore.
Yet declaring independence and securing it were two very different accomplishments. In 2004, the Orange Revolution overturned an election widely regarded as fraudulent, and it did so without the violence seen in later upheavals. A decade later, the Maidan demonstrations erupted after President Viktor Yanukovych backed away from a European agreement amid pressure from Moscow. The confrontation ultimately cost more than 100 protesters their lives, while Yanukovych escaped to Russia. Ukrainians came to know the uprising as the Revolution of Dignity. Soon afterward, Russian forces occupied Crimea, while fighting spread through the Donbas and developed into a conflict that persisted for years. Again and again, Ukraine confronted the same fundamental issue: was its future to be determined by its own citizens in Kyiv or by an outside power?
That question reached a decisive moment on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Many expected the assault to overwhelm Ukraine rapidly, with Kyiv potentially falling before Western governments could settle on a coordinated response. Instead, the capital held. Three and a half years later, the conflict continues, with Ukrainian attacks reaching targets far inside Russia. The human and material toll has been immense: devastated cities, almost six million refugees living abroad and 3.7 million people displaced within Ukraine, and millions whose lives have been reshaped by the constant threat of air attacks. At the same time, the war has accelerated the development of a shared national identity in a way that the formal declaration of 1991 never could. Public opinion, language patterns, and the country's sustained resistance increasingly reflect the same reality. Whatever the invasion failed to accomplish, it removed much of the uncertainty over whether Ukraine sees itself as a distinct nation.
That is why this year's anniversary carries a different tone. Across Ukraine, August 24 is being observed not simply as a historic milestone but as a statement of endurance. Official commemorations emphasize those who have died defending the country. Cities across Europe are staging concerts, rallies, and other displays of solidarity, while the Eiffel Tower is set to glow in Ukraine's blue and yellow. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described 2026 as a year filled with major national anniversaries, including milestones tied to the constitution, military, currency, and national symbols, with Independence Day serving as the centerpiece.
It is easy to forget how uncertain Ukraine's future once appeared. In 1991, some analysts viewed independence as little more than a temporary consequence of the Soviet Union's collapse, expecting the country eventually to be absorbed again into a larger political order. Thirty-five years later, Ukraine has endured an extraordinary price to preserve its sovereignty, and there is little indication that its people believe the cost was unjustified. The parliamentary vote of August 24, 1991 established Ukraine as an independent state. The years that followed — marked by two major popular uprisings and a prolonged war — have been about turning that declaration into something lived, defended, and unmistakably real.