Ukrainian Unity Day (Den Sobornosti) is an important historical event in Ukraine, which marks the anniversary of the unification of eastern and western Ukraine in 1919. It is celebrated on January 22 every year. Unity Day is a Ukrainian observance that commemorates the Treaty of Unity signed on January 22, 1919.

The story behind Unity Day dates back to January 22, 1919, when eastern and western Ukraine was united through the Treaty of Unity. Historically, up until 1919, these territories – Ukraine’s People Republic and West Ukrainian People Republic – often belonged to different empires.

The agreement was aimed at creating a unified Ukrainian state, a movement long awaited by the intelligentsia on both sides.

«The territory of Ukraine, divided over the centuries, including Galicia, Bukovyna, Carpathian Ruthenia, and Dnieper Ukraine will now become a great-united Ukraine. Dreams, for which the best sons of Ukraine fought and died for, have come true», – was written in the text of the universal made by the Directorate of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.

On this day Ukrainians unfold a giant National Flag to mark National Unity Day in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and other cities of Ukraine. Several years ago, civic activists in Kyiv, (taking an example from the first “human chain” in Ukraine, which connected Kyiv and Lviv in January 1990), joined each other in a human chain, more than a mile long, on Kyiv’s Patona bridge, connecting banks of the river Dnipro to symbolize the unity of Ukraine’s east and west.