Ukrainian independence referendum, 1991

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Ukrainian independence referendum
Sunday, 1 December 1991

Do you support the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?

Results
	Votes	%
Yes	28,804,071	92.26%
No	2,417,554	7.74%
Valid votes	31,221,625	97.90%
Invalid or blank votes	670,117	2.1%
Total votes	31,891,742	100.00%

Results by region

Yes — No

Note: Yes results in yellow color. Saturation of colour denotes strength of vote

A referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991.^[1] An overwhelming majority of 92.3% of voters approved the declaration of independence made by the Verkhovna Rada on 24 August 1991.

The referendum

Voters were asked "Do you support the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?"^[2] The text of the Declaration was included as a preamble to the question. The referendum was called by the Parliament of Ukraine to confirm the Act of Independence, which was adopted by the Parliament on 24 August 1991.^[3] Citizens of Ukraine expressed overwhelming support for independence. In the referendum, 31,891,742 registered voters (or 84.18% of the electorate) took part, and among them 28,804,071 (or 92.3%) voted "Yes".^[2]
On the same day, a presidential election took place. All six candidates campaigned in favour of a "Yes" vote in the independence referendum. Leonid Kravchuk, the parliament chairman and de facto head of state, was elected to serve as the first President of Ukraine.^[4]
From 2 December 1991 on Ukraine was globally recognized as an independent state (by other countries).^[5] That day the President of the Russian SFSR Boris Yeltsin did the same.^[6] In a telegram of congratulations President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev sent to Kravchuk soon after the referendum, Gorbachev included his hopes for close Ukrainian cooperation and understanding in "the formation of a union of sovereign states".^[7]
Ukraine was the second-most powerful republic in the Soviet Union both economically and politically (behind only Russia), and its secession ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the Soviet Union together. By December 1991 all former Soviet Republics except the RSFSR^[8] and the Kazakh SSR^[8] had formally seceded from the Union.^[9] A week after his election, Kravchuk joined with Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislau Shushkevich in signing the Belavezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.^[10] The Soviet Union officially dissolved on December 26.^[11]

Results

The ballot paper used in the referendum, with the text of the Declaration of Independence printed on it.

Ukrainian media had converted en masse to the independence ideal.
Polls showed 63% support for the "Yes" campaign in September 1991; that grew to 77% in the first week of October 1991 and 88% by mid-November 1991.^[12]
55% of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine voted for independence.^[13]

Choice	Votes	%
For	28,804,071	92.3
Against	2,417,554	7.7
Invalid/blank votes	670,117	–
Total	31,891,742	100
Registered voters/turnout	37,885,555	84.2
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

By region

The Act of Independence was supported by a majority of voters in each of the 27 administrative regions of Ukraine: 24 Oblasts, 1 Autonomous Republic, and 2 Special Municipalities (Kiev City and Sevastopol City).^[4] Voter turnout was lowest in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.^[12] Calculating the "yes"-votes as a percentage of the total electorate reveals a lower percentage of all possible voters in Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Odessa Oblasts and Crimea supported Ukrainian independence than in the rest of the country.^[12]

No-vote in % per Ukrainian Oblast

Subdivision	Voted "Yes" %^[4]	Voted "Yes" % of total electorate^[14]
Crimean ASSR	54.19	37 (with a 60% turnout of voters in all Crimea^[15])
Cherkasy Oblast	96.03	87
Chernihiv Oblast	93.74	85
Chernivtsi Oblast	92.78	81
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast	90.36	74
Donetsk Oblast	83.90	64
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast	98.42	94
Kharkiv Oblast	86.33	65
Kherson Oblast	90.13	75
Khmelnytskyi Oblast	96.30	90
Kiev Oblast	95.52	84
Kirovohrad Oblast	93.88	83
Luhansk Oblast	83.86	68
Lviv Oblast	97.46	93
Mykolayiv Oblast	89.45	75
Odessa Oblast	85.38	64
Poltava Oblast	94.93	87
Rivne Oblast	95.96	89
Sumy Oblast	92.61	82
Ternopil Oblast	98.67	96
Vinnytsia Oblast	95.43	87
Volyn Oblast	96.32	90
Zakarpattia Oblast	92.59	77
Zaporizhzhia Oblast	90.66	73
Zhytomyr Oblast	95.06	86
Kiev City	92.87	75
Sevastopol City	57.07	40^[15] (with a 60% turnout of voters in all Crimea^[15])
National Total	90.32	76^[16]