24 August 2025
(PHOTO: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh)
Activists of the Vyshyvankovy Festival NGO and everyone who wanted to participate unfurled a 34-meter-long flag of Ukraine on the Primorska Stairs in the center of Odesa.
An Intent correspondent attended the event.
The Vyshyvanka Festival's communicator, Nadiya Novoshytska , noted that the organization is not yet able to return all the festival events that took place on Ukraine's Independence Day before the full-scale invasion, including the Ukrainian language dictation at the De Richelieu monument and the fair, but they decided to unfurl the flag anyway.
Traditionally, the flag is supposed to be as long as the number of meters as Ukraine has been independent, so it gets longer every year. The flag unfurling was followed by a patriotic car rally.
Independence Day of Ukraine is a public holiday of Ukraine, celebrated annually on August 24 in honor of the adoption of the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine and secession from the USSR, which is generally considered the date of the restoration of the independent state of Ukraine. Since on August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, which was confirmed by the people in an all-Ukrainian referendum on December 1, 1991, on February 20, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a resolution "On the Independence Day of Ukraine."
Also, as part of the Vyshyvanka Festival, on August 23, Flag Day, a commemoration of the fallen heroes was held on Exchange Square in front of the Odesa City Council building.
Last year, on August 23, on Flag Day, for the first time since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a large national flag of Ukraine was solemnly unfurled in Odesa. This tradition was established as part of the Vyshyvanka festival in 2009 and will be held annually on the Day of the National Flag of Ukraine until 2021. Due to the full-scale invasion that began in 2022, the event was suspended for security reasons.
PHOTO: Intent/Natalia Dovbysh
Кирило Бойко