Ukraine’s Unity Day on January 22 is celebrated each year, marking the date in 1919 when the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, historically distinct groups controlled by different rulers at different periods, signed a treaty in a united attempt to establish their own nation, the first such modern attempt in Ukrainian history.
The two groups never successfully formed a government, and the territory was soon overrun, divided by the Soviets to the east and Poland to the west. Ukraine’s aspirations for independence were shelved for decades and only achieved in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Almost 30 years later, Ukraine celebrates the nation’s independence each year, often with human chains symbolic of Ukraine’s unity. In Kyiv, participants formed a human chain across Paton Bridge over the Dniper river, the symbolic boundary between Ukraine’s East and West.
