Ukraine marks 33rd anniversary of independence referendum

The Act, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on August 24, 1991, was backed by 346 deputies, according to Ukrinform.

In the referendum, 90.92% of voters answered "yes" to the question: "Do you confirm the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?"

There was no single region or settlement where Ukraine's independence did not garner majority support. In Crimea, 54.19% of citizens voted for independence, in Sevastopol, 57.07%, while in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Odesa, and Kharkiv regions, over 80% backed statehood. In the Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Ternopil, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Vinnytsia regions, more than 95% voted for independence.

For the third time in 350 years of both heroic and tragic history -- since the War of Liberation in the mid-17th century -- Ukraine secured independence. The all-Ukrainian referendum gave the Act of Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, the legal force to assert that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist as a subject of international law, and a new independent state – Ukraine -- emerged on the global map.

On December 2, 1991, Poland and Canada recognized Ukraine's independence, followed by Lithuania and Latvia on December 4. The referendum coincided with Ukraine's first presidential election, in which Leonid Kravchuk was elected.

Today, Ukrainians commemorate this historic milestone amid the full-scale war Russia launched on February 24, 2022, continuing its hybrid aggression that began in 2014.