European External Action Service

24/08/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 24/08/2024 06:41

Ukraine's Independence Day - 24 August 2024

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Ukraine's Independence Day - 24 August 2024

33 years ago, Ukraine regained its independence. Today, Ukrainians fight to protect the freedom they conquered and safeguard the independence that they own by undeniable right. For Ukrainians, independence means more than a status.

© Bohdan Susol / ukraine.ua, 2024

Main image: the Motherland Monument in Kyiv.

"Volia" (воля) is a Ukrainian concept that can be translated as "will" or "freedom" and the deliberate choice to be free. On Ukraine's Independence Day, the country celebrates the volia of the Ukrainian people which resulted in the choice to again become an independent state in 1991.

ukraine.ua, 2024

Find out more about the Volia campaign.

Two and a half years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the blue and yellow flag of the country proudly flies over the Ukrainian capital. The flag has become an ever-more prominent symbol of independent Ukraine and free and courageous Ukrainians.

Borys Korpusenko / ukraine.ua, 2024

Image: The Ukranian flag on top of the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

The EU continues its unwavering political, financial, humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine, and remains firm in its conviction that Ukraine will prevail. Russia is the aggressor in violation of the United Nations Charter, and Ukraine the victim exercising its fundamental right to self-defence.

The EU will continue to push for a just and long-lasting peace that preserves Ukraine's freedom and independence in line with the UN Charter, and ensures aggressor's accountability.

European Union, 2024

Image: Raising of the Ukrainian flag at the European Parliament buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg on the Anniversary of the Ukrainian Independence Day.