You're reading: Key events since independence

Independent Ukraine experienced momentous events in its short, 25-year history, including two popular revolutions one decade apart and Russia’s ongoing war against the nation. The granting of autonomous status to the Crimean peninsula and its subsequent annexation by Russia, the surrender of its nuclear weapons arsenal and adoption of the first Constitution are among the key events that continue to shape Ukraine today.


1991. Vote on independence

Ukraine held a referendum on independence and simultaneous presidential elections on Dec. 1, after a failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev took place in Moscow in August. Ninety-two percent of the population nationally voted for Ukraine to become independent of the Soviet Union, with 54 percent voting for in Crimea. The former Chairman of Ukraine’s Supreme Soviet, Leonid Kravchuk, was elected Ukraine’s first president.

In the run-up to the independence referendum, 300,000 supporters of Ukraine’s pro-democracy Rukh Party created a human chain that stretched from Kyiv to Lviv. Its participants raised Ukraine’s blue and yellow flag for the first time since 1921.

-photo by Ukrinform

1994.The Budapest Memorandum

An agreement reached among the United States, Britain, Russia and Ukraine stipulated that Ukraine must give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons – at that time the third largest in the world after the United States and Russia. In exchange, the three global powers promised they would never threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. The weapons were transferred to Russia or destroyed. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, it has become painfully obvious that the agreement did not bind any of the signatories to defend Ukraine in the case of invasion by a foreign power.


1996. Introduction of the hryvnia

The first five years of independence were particularly tough in Ukraine. Hyperinflation made it impossible to introduce a proper currency, which had been designed and printed as early as 1992. Instead, Ukrainians used the Ukrainian karbovanets, or “coupons,” a transitional currency. During the two-week currency introduction period in September 1996, both currencies could be used, but businesses were required to give change only in hryvnias. Bank accounts were automatically converted.

-photo by Ukrinform.

1996. Ukraine’s first Constitution

Ukraine’s first Constitution placed a great deal of power in the hands of the president. The president could appoint the prime minister and dismiss members of the cabinet. In 2004, after the Orange Revolution, parliament voted to amend the constitution so that parliament would nominate the prime minister, and only the prime minister would be able to dismiss ministers. Parliament was also responsible for approving the cabinet, although the minister of defense and foreign affairs would be nominated by the president.

The 2004 amendments were controversially overturned in 2010 by Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, giving then President Viktor Yanukovych more power. The day before Yanukovych fled Ukraine in disgrace, on Feb. 21, 2014, parliament voted to restore the 2004 amendments.


2000.The Gongadze murder

On Sept. 16, 2000, journalist Georgiy Gongadze disappeared. Villagers discovered his headless body in woods in Kyiv Oblast. Recordings secretly taped by the bodyguard of then-President Leonid Kuchma implicated the president, the interior minister and other top officials in the murder. The incident sparked a wave of anti-Kuchma protests and created a strong opposition against the authorities.

-photo by UNIAN

2004. Orange Revolution

The Leonid Kuchma administration grew unpopular because of corruption and repression. The final straw came in the 2004 presidential elections, when Kuchma’s preferred candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, was accused of rigging the elections. Protesters took to the streets of Kyiv and other cities calling for a re-run. In December, the pro-Western candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, won the re-vote, despite being seriously poisoned during the election campaign.


2010. Yanukovych in power

Yanukovych won narrowly in the second runoff of the 2010 presidential elections against ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Yanukovych’s allies and financial backers had extensive business interests with Russia. His victory, therefore, was seen as a turn towards Russian President Vladimir Putin and a blow against Ukraine’s democratic aspirations.

photo by Anastasia Vlasova

2013. EuroMaidan Revolution

In November 2013, Yanukovych failed to sign a European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement that had been initiated under Yushchenko. Students and activists took to the streets to pressure the president into signing the agreement. The protests quickly turned into an outlet for anger against the Yanukovych regime in general, and attracted millions of people across the country. On Feb. 22, Yanukovych fled to Russia after days of violence, during which police snipers shot around 100 protesters dead on the streets.

– photo by Anastasia Vlasova

2014. Loss of Crimea

During the chaos that followed the EuroMaidan Revolution, Russian soldiers without insignia, dubbed “little green men,” started to appear on the Crimean peninsula. Left with no back up from Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea were forced to abandon their bases and, ultimately, the peninsula, without a fight. Some, including Ukrainian Navy Admiral Denis Berezovsky, defected to Russia. Russian soldiers also occupied the Crimean Parliament.

Russia installed a prime minister who declared Crimean independence from Ukraine and called for a referendum on accession to Russia. In the run-up to the sham referendum, clashes broke out in which three people were killed and dozens went missing. The illegal referendum was widely condemned internationally. Russia’s annexation led to the first round of Western sanctions against the Kremlin.


– photo by AFP.

2014. Russia’s war against Ukraine in the Donbas

Pro-Russian protests began to take place in several cities in eastern and southern Ukraine in spring 2014, most calling for accession to Russia. Armed protesters, many of whom were allegedly Russian special forces, took over strategic local government buildings such as regional administrations and headquarters of the Ukrainian security services. Ukrainian forces were able to recapture most of the buildings but were too late to advance into eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The Russian occupying forces in the Donbas were heavily armed. From April until the February 2016, several battles took place in the cities of Mariupol, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Avdiyivka, Donetsk and Debaltseve between the separatists and Ukrainian government forces. The human rights situation “remains extremely grim,” the United Nations reported in June 2016. Russia has so far not moved to annex the territories, but is continuing to supply ammunition, weapons and tanks to its proxy forces.

To date, more than 10,000 people have been killed and 21,500 injured in Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the UN. The dead include 298 passengers and crew on board a Malaysian airliner, which was shot down by a BUK anti-aircraft missile on July 17, 2014. There is clear evidence the BUK complex was sent into Ukraine by Russia, and that it was operated by Russian soldiers.