Public holidays in Ukraine

During martial law a public holiday is not a non-working day.^[10]

Before the Orthodox Church of Ukraine^[11][12] and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church^[13] switched to the Revised Julian calendar in September 2023 all Christian holidays were observed according to the Julian calendar, since then Christmas is officially celebrated on 25 December.^[5] From 2017 to 2022 Christmas was celebrated in Ukraine on 2 different days, 7 January (the date of the holiday according to the Julian calendar) and 25 December (the date of the holiday according to the Gregorian and Revised Julian calendars).^[9] From 2023 Christmas is only officially celebrated in Ukraine on 25 December.^{[14][15][16][17]}

When a public holiday falls on a weekend (e.g. Saturday or Sunday), the following working day (e.g. Monday) turns into an official day off too.^{[citation needed]}

If only one or only two working days are between a public holiday and another day off then the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine usually releases a recommendation to avoid this gap by moving these working days onto a certain Saturday (that is to have uninterrupted vacations, but to compensate this by work on another day which would be a day off). Usually such recommendations only concern those employees whose weekly days off are Saturday and Sunday.^{[citation needed]}

The Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on 24 February 2022 led to a reappraisal of the popularity of the public holidays in Ukraine.^[18] A March 2024 study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that the popularity of Independence Day of Ukraine and Defenders Day had both almost more than doubled (from 37% to 64% and from 29% to 58%) while the popularity of International Women's Day had fallen from being labelled "most beloved" by 49% of respondents in 2017 to 21% in March 2024.^[18]

• 26 March – National Guard Day
• 30 April – Border Guards Day
• 6 May – Day of the Mechanized Infantry
• 18 May – Reservists' Day
• 23 May – Marine Corps Birthday, Heroes of Ukraine Day
• 27 May – Special Operations Forces Day
• 4 July – Police Day
• First Sunday in July – Navy Day;^[19] From 1997 till 2011 this day was celebrated on 1 August^[20][21]
• First Sunday in August – Air Defence Forces Day
• 8 August – Signal Corps Day
• 7 September – Military Intelligence Forces Day
• 9 September – Armoured Forces Day
• 12 September - Electronic Warfare Troops Day
• 14 September – Mobilized Servicemen Day
• First Sunday in October – Territorial Defence Forces Day
• 29 October – Finance Officers Day
• 3 November – Corps of Engineers Day
• 8 November – Air Assault Forces Day^[22][23][24]
• 4 December – Rocket Forces and Artillery Day
• 6 December – Armed Forces Day; festive fireworks and salutes take place in various cities in Ukraine;^[25] The holiday was established in 1993 by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament).^[26]
• 12 December – Ground Forces Day
• 18 December - Military Counterintelligence Day
• 23 December – Operational Servicemen Day

• Christmas in Ukraine