UKRAINE
 

NAVAL ENSIGNS & FLAGS, 1992-2003
 

Notes
 

With the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1990 Ukraine became a fully independent nation for the first time in its modern history. Not without bickering, the new state adopted a horizontal bicolor, light blue over yellow, as its national flag. These colors have long been associated with Ukraine, and a flag of similar design had been adopted by the short-lived Ukrainian Republic of 1918-20.

Control of the Black Sea Fleet of the former USSR was disputed between Ukraine and the Russian Federation for several years before a division of its assets was agreed to in 1997. Perhaps for this reason, the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) procrastinated over the selection of a naval ensign. In the meantime, various unofficial designs were used. Eventually, an ensign similar to that used by the 1918-20 republic was officially adopted, with the national flag serving as the naval jack. From 1990 to the 2003-04 these was considerable confusion as to the exact design of the naval flags and pennants of the new Ukrainian Navy. Probably there existed several semi-official variants of many of these flags before the designs were finalized. A range of naval rank flags based on the Soviet pattern are known to have been in use in 1998; these were probably adopted from 1992 onward. They were replaced around 2003 by the current naval flags.

Flag Proportions: These Ukrainian naval ensigns and flags (except commissioning pennants) were made in 2:3 proportions.

Credits: Many of my drawings are based on images and information posted to the FOTW Mailing List by Victor Lomantsov, Zeljko Heimer, and others.

Images Added September 2012

President of Ukraine & Minister of Defense