Section
Understanding Society
The institutions, economy and social trends behind the news.
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The Day of Dignity and Freedom, November 21: Two Beginnings on Independence Square, in 2004 and 2013
Ukraine's Day of Dignity and Freedom (November 21) is a commemoration established by a presidential decree of November 13, 2014. Both the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity of 2013 to 2014 began with people gathering on Independence Square on November 21. This article sets out the wording of the decree, how the day's name has changed, and what happened on the two November 21s, drawing on the original texts and a court judgment.
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Roads Are Cleared by the Local Government, Sites by the Owner: Ukraine’s Rules for War Debris
Who clears the debris of buildings destroyed by Russian attacks, where it is put, and what it is reused for? In Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1073 of September 2022 sets out the procedure. This article looks, through the text of the law and reports as of September 2026, at how debris with an unknown owner is handled, the conditions for temporary storage sites, and why estimates of the quantity of debris differ between sources.
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Rumeis and Urums: The Crimean Greeks Who Settled in Mariupol
Mariupol and the villages around it were formed when Christians who left Crimea in 1778 settled there. Their Greek-descended people are divided into Rumeis, who speak a language descended from Greek, and Urums, who speak a Turkic language. This article sets out, using encyclopedias and statistics, the year and number of the migration, the two names, the language policy of the 1920s, and the figures from the 2001 census.
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Ukraine’s Presidential Elections: Seven Held, Five Went to a Runoff. 1991 to 2019
Independent Ukraine held seven presidential elections between 1991 and 2019. Only in 1991 and 2014 was the outcome decided in the first round; in 2004, the Supreme Court ordered the runoff to be rerun. This article sets out a timeline based on Central Election Commission figures, the constitutional provisions on the term of office, the two-consecutive-term limit, and early elections, and the legal basis for why no election has been held under martial law.
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Vernadsky, Ukraine’s Antarctic Station: Was It Really “Handed Over for One Pound”?
Ukraine's Antarctic research station Akademik Vernadsky was the British station Faraday until February 6, 1996. According to the National Antarctic Scientific Center, which operates it, the memorandum under which the station was transferred provided for it to be handed over free of charge, and the widely told story of "one pound" arose from a joke on the day of the handover. This article traces the timeline from 1947, the changes in the station's name, Ukraine's admission as a Consultative Party to the Antarctic Treaty, and events up to the 2026 wintering expedition.
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1,500-Plus Kilometers on the Map: The Underground Quarries Beneath Odesa
The "catacombs" beneath Odesa are the traces left by cutting stone to build the city, starting in the early 19th century. The often-cited figure of 2,500 km is written even in encyclopedias as an estimate; the tunnels that have actually been recorded and mapped come to just over 1,500 km. This article sets out the name, where the numbers come from, and the nature reserve and fossil cave dating to 1963, drawing on encyclopedias, a university, and city records.
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Lviv’s Armenian Cathedral, and the City’s Armenian Community
Lviv's Armenian Cathedral, begun in 1363, was for centuries the center of the city's Armenian community. This article traces its own law, three theories on the year of union with Rome, the break of 1945, and the 2003 consecration, drawing on encyclopedias and census records.
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No Russian Passport, No Pension, No Home: Citizenship Imposed in Occupied Territory
Since Crimea in 2014, Russia has extended, step by step, a policy of making residents of the Ukrainian territory it occupies take Russian passports. Reports from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights document, case after case, that people without the passport are disadvantaged in employment, pensions, medical care, and property. This article sums up what Russia's presidential decrees say and how Ukraine treats this citizenship.
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Called Up at 25: How Ukraine Rewrote Its Military Service Law in 2024
In April 2024, Ukraine lowered the upper age limit for registration as a conscript from 27 to 25, so that turning 25 now moves a person into the "persons liable for military service" category that can be called up under mobilization. A further amendment that May made updating registration data mandatory and launched the "Reserve+" app. This article sorts out what changed, based on the text as it stood in September 2026.
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987 Towns and Villages Renamed: Ukraine’s Two Place-Name Laws
In Ukraine, a 2015 law targeted place names honoring communist-party leaders and others for renaming, and a 2023 law targeted names commemorating the Russian Empire and Russian rule. Under the first law, 987 settlements and 25 raions were renamed; under a September 2024 Verkhovna Rada resolution, 327 settlements and 4 raions were renamed. This article sums up the grounds and procedure for these renamings.