Border Guard Day in Ukraine Date in the current year: April 30, 2024

The history of Ukrainian Border Guard Day dates back to the Soviet times. On May 28, 1918, the Council of People’s Commissars issued a decree establishing the State Border Guard of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Following the creation of the Soviet Borer Troops, May 28 was declared as Border Guard Day throughout the Soviet Union.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, several of the former Soviet republics continued to celebrate May 28 as Border Guard Day. They included Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In Ukraine, however, Border Guard Day was moved to November 4 to commemorate the adoption of the Law “On the Border Troops of Ukraine”. Although official events were held on November 4, many border officers continued to celebrate on May 28 as well.

In 2001, Lieutenant General Nikolay Litvin was appointed commander of the border troops. He proposed that Border Guard Day be moved to May 28 “to honor Soviet traditions”. In 2003, the proposal was supported by President Leonid Kuchma, and for the next decade, Border Guard Day was celebrated in May.

After the events of Euromaidan (a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in late 2013 and early 2014, which resulted in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution), Ukraine began to get rid of the remnants of its Soviet past. In April 2015, the new government officially started the decommunization process, and many holidays that had been established during the Soviet times were canceled or moved to another date.

On April 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a presidential decree declaring April 30 as the new Border Guard Day. On this day in 1918, the Donetsk Group of the Ukrainian People’s Army reached the official border between Ukraine and the Russian Soviet Republic at Kolpakovo. It was one of the greatest achievements of the Ukraine People’s Army during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917–1921.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in its present form was created on July 31, 2003 after the reorganization of the country’s border troops. It is an independent law enforcement agency responsible for protecting the state border of Ukraine, as well as the country’s sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone. Since its inception, Ukrainian border guards have participated in the 2003 Tuzla Island conflict between Ukraine and Russia and in the crisis resulting from the Russian military intervention in Ukraine that began in 2014 (the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas region).