Independence Day Is August 24, but Martial Law Has Suspended What “Holiday” Means in Ukraine

Ukraine’s Independence Day falls on August 24. On this day in 1991, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence. But this national holiday was not “Independence Day” on August 24 from the very start. And since March 2022, the very provision granting a day off for this and other holidays has not applied, for the duration of martial law.

This article traces the origin of Independence Day, the provision setting out Ukraine’s holidays, and their treatment under martial law, using documents in the Supreme Council’s legal database.

The Resolution and Declaration of Independence Act of August 24, 1991

On August 24, 1991, the Supreme Council adopted Resolution No. 1427-XII, “On the Proclamation of the Independence of Ukraine.” The resolution declared, “On August 24, 1991, Ukraine is proclaimed an independent, democratic state,” and provided that, from that moment, only the Constitution, laws and government decisions of Ukraine would have force on Ukraine’s territory. The same resolution also set a referendum for December 1, 1991, to confirm the Act of Declaration of Independence.

The “Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine” (Акт проголошення незалежності України), attached to the resolution, gives its reasoning as follows.

Proceeding from the mortal danger that faced Ukraine in connection with the state coup in the USSR on August 19, 1991, continuing the thousand-year tradition of state-building in Ukraine, and acting on the right to self-determination provided for by the UN Charter and other international legal documents, and implementing the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic solemnly proclaims the independence of Ukraine and the establishment of an independent Ukrainian state — Ukraine.

Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine (August 24, 1991). Japanese translation is this article’s own

The Act goes on to declare that Ukraine’s territory is indivisible and inviolable, and that henceforth only the Constitution and laws of Ukraine will have force within it.

On the December 1 referendum’s result, the “Referendum” entry (written in 2024 by Bohdan Harasymiw) in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) at the University of Alberta, gives a turnout of 84.2%, with 90.3% voting in favor, 7.6% against, and 2.1% invalid ballots. The period from the declaration of independence to the end of the Soviet era is also covered in Seventy Years as a Soviet Republic, and Japan Over That Time.

The First “Independence Day” Was July 16

A little over a year before declaring independence, on July 16, 1990, the same Supreme Council had adopted the “Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine” (No. 55-XII). On that same day, Resolution No. 56-XII designated July 16 as the “Day of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine” and provided that it be celebrated every year as a national holiday.

This was revised by Supreme Council Resolution No. 2143-XII of February 20, 1992, “On the Independence Day of Ukraine.” The resolution, affirming the historic weight of the Act of Declaration of Independence of August 24, 1991, designated August 24 as the “Independence Day of Ukraine” and provided that it be celebrated every year as a national holiday. At the same time, the 1990 resolution making July 16 a holiday lost its force.

Today’s Holidays Are Listed in a Single Article of the Labor Code

The holidays observed as days off in Ukraine are listed in Article 73, “Holidays and Days Off,” of the Labor Code (Кодекс законів про працю України). The text as of September 2026 is as follows.

In addition, the law provides that no work is required on Easter (one Sunday), Trinity Sunday (one Sunday), and December 25’s Christmas, as religious holidays. It also provides that people of religions other than Orthodoxy may be given up to three days off a year, on application by a registered religious organization, on condition the time is made up later by working. There is also a rule that when a holiday falls on a weekend, the following day becomes a day off (Article 67).

The background to Christmas’s date moving is covered in detail in Ukraine’s Christmas Moves from January 7 to December 25. Note that August 23, the day before August 24, is “Flag Day,” but this is a commemorative day set by presidential decree and is not among the holidays in Article 73 (see the article on the flag, coat of arms and anthem).

Under Martial Law, Article 73 Does Not Apply

Martial law was introduced on February 24, 2022, the day Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Nineteen days later, on March 15, 2022, the Supreme Council passed Law No. 2136-IX, “On the Organization of Labor Relations Under Martial Law” (taking effect March 24).

Article 6.6 of this law provides that Article 73 of the Labor Code does not apply for the duration of martial law. Also not applied are Article 53, which shortens working hours on the day before a holiday, and Article 67.3, which moves a day off to the following day when a holiday falls on a weekend. As originally adopted, the provision was worded as not applying “Articles 71 to 73 (holidays and days off)”; it was revised into its current form by Law No. 2352-IX of July 1, 2022.

In other words, the list of holidays remains in the Labor Code, but for the duration of martial law, the provision that makes work a day off based on that list is not in effect. Article 73 of the Labor Code itself now carries a note that it does not apply during martial law. Law No. 2136-IX provides that it loses force, except for certain provisions, on the day martial law ends or is lifted.

It is worth distinguishing here between the law establishing martial law itself (the Law on the Legal Regime of Martial Law, No. 389-VIII of 2015) and this law on labor relations, which are two separate laws. It is the latter that suspends holiday time off. The overall picture of martial law is covered in What Ukraine’s Martial Law Stops, and What It Cannot Stop.

Even While Not a Day Off, the List Has Kept Being Rewritten

Looking at the “Main amendment” column in the table above, many changes have come since 2022. The Day of Ukrainian Statehood was added to the list of holidays in May 2022, after Article 73 had already stopped applying. In 2023, May 9 moved to May 8, July 28 moved to July 15, October 14 moved to October 1, and the January 7 Christmas was removed from the list.

Why change by law the dates of holidays that are not observed as days off under martial law? The text of the laws does not say. But the result can be read as this: the list of holidays functions at once as a table of days off and as a table continually rewritten to show what the state chooses to commemorate. August 24 is one of the dates on that list that has not moved since 1992.