Reaffirming Ukrainian Statehood 2026

The following statement was issued by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

Ahead of Ukrainian Statehood Day, tomorrow, July 15th, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America joins Ukrainians around the world in honoring the long, unbroken continuity of Ukrainian nationhood and honoring the men and women who, in 1990, took a risk declaring Ukrainian sovereignty openly during Soviet rule.

Ukrainian statehood reaches back more than a millennium to Kyiv, St. Volodymyr the Great, and the civilizational choice made through the Christianization of Kyivan Rus in 988. From that foundation came generations of Ukrainian state-building: the legacy of Kyivan Rus, the Galician-Volhynian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, the Ukrainian National People’s Republic, the Western Ukrainian National People’s Republic, Carpathian Ukraine, the restoration of independence in 1991, and the modern Ukrainian state now defending its freedom against russian aggression.

For Ukrainians in America, this day carries a special meaning.

For generations, Ukrainian Americans carried the idea of Ukrainian statehood in their hearts and affirmed it in their communities. They did so even when Ukraine’s fate seemed hopeless, when the land itself was painted over on the maps drawn by the empires that oppressed Ukraine. In churches, schools, newspapers, cultural organizations, youth groups, veterans’ associations, and civic institutions, our community carried forward the language, history, and political conviction that Ukraine was a nation with the right to live free.

For decades, Ukrainian Americans raised their children to know the truth when the rest of the world was told lies. The Ukrainian American community commemorated the Holodomor when Soviet propaganda denied it. The community defended the memory of Ukraine’s independence while moscow tried to erase it. Our community advocated in Washington when Ukraine had no seat of its own among free nations. Our community built institutions that kept Ukrainian identity alive and helped ensure that the dream of an independent Ukraine would survive across oceans and generations. UCCA is one of such institutions, born out of a collective and generational effort.

When Ukraine restored its independence in 1991, it did so following centuries of state-building and decades of sacrifice by Ukrainians in Ukraine and throughout the diaspora. Ukrainian Americans were part of that story.

In a generation-spanning slight of hand, moscow sought to steal Ukraine’s history and appropriate the Kyivan Rus legacy in order to claim that Ukraine and russia are one people. Ukrainian Statehood Day is an opportunity to expose that lie, while honoring those who told the truth of Ukraine’s sovereignty and those who fight and die for that truth to this day.

Today, as the wheel of history turns and russia yet again wages war to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty and deny the existence of the Ukrainian nation, Ukrainian Statehood Day is a declaration of historical truth.

Ukraine’s statehood is ancient, legitimate, and non-negotiable.

Слава Україні. Glory to Ukraine.