Ukraine at 35: Coming of Age Under Fire

Thirty-five years after Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on Aug. 24, 1991, the country is still fighting for the right to live by that decision. The referendum on Dec. 1, 1991, when more than 90% of Ukrainians backed independence, was supposed to settle the question. Russia’s war has made clear that it did not. Ukraine at 35 is no longer the hesitant post-Soviet state many expected it to remain. It has built a stronger civic identity, chosen Europe, and learned, at enormous cost, what independence really requires. But the price has been brutal: years of Russian attack, a smaller population, and an economy battered by war and corruption.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The change in how Ukrainians see themselves is hard to miss, and the geopolitical shift has been just as striking. NATO membership, once a marginal idea, now has broad support. The old east-west divides have not disappeared entirely, but they no longer define the country. War has hardened a common sense of fate. Ukraine has also stopped being treated merely as a space where others act. It has become a country that acts – shaping European security, innovating on the battlefield, and forcing the world to take its choices seriously. None of this mitigates the damage. Ukraine’s population on government-controlled territory is now roughly 29 million, down from 52 million at independence. Births have fallen, deaths have risen, and millions of Ukrainians are still living abroad. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Backers Gather as War Escalates, Air Defense Runs Low European leaders meet in Kyiv to press for air-defense support as Russian strikes kill more civilians than at any point since 2022's early months. For many families, staying has become a hard calculation: conscription, blackouts and missile strikes at home, or uncertainty in exile. Martial law has delayed elections, testing democratic habits even as Ukrainians continue to demand clean government and accountability. That democratic reflex remains one of Ukraine’s greatest strengths. Civil society has remained active and defends anti-corruption institutions. Journalists still expose wrongdoing, and citizens still argue fiercely about the country they want to build, even under wartime pressure. The same is true beyond Ukraine’s borders. The refugee wave has created a larger, more rooted diaspora across Europe and elsewhere. Some 5.6 million Ukrainians remain abroad, and with return intentions leveling off at about 43%, many have begun to build new lives. That is a loss, but it is also a resource Ukraine cannot afford to waste. Remittances help families survive. Diaspora networks raise aid, lobby governments and can bring back skills, capital and contacts when reconstruction finally begins. If Ukraine is to recover, it will need both: a stubborn democratic culture at home and a global Ukrainian community that remains tied to the country’s future. It will also need the reforms required for EU membership to move from promise to practice. Ukraine at 35 has shown that it can resist, adapt and surprise the world. The next task is harder in a different way: to turn courage into institutions, survival into recovery, and independence into something no future Kremlin can overturn. To anchor the country firmly in the democratic world and a reliable security structure and not to let down the friends and allies that have helped Ukraine survive during its darkest days with crucial political, financial and military support. For Kyiv Post, which has chronicled this struggle through many of its hardest chapters, the anniversary is more than a date on the calendar. It is a marker of how far Ukraine has come, and why its fight matters far beyond its borders. In 35 years, Ukraine has shown that a post-Russian colony state (tsarist then Soviet) can choose decolonization, democracy, build a civic nation, resist renewed imperial aggression and help reshape the security map of Europe. Kyiv PostKyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.