The National Bank is putting a new 2,000-hryvnia banknote – the highest denomination – into circulation from 4 September 2026.

Firstly, the printing of new banknotes is only possible once the security classification has been lifted, which takes place on the day the new banknote is unveiled. Consequently, it takes a certain amount of time to print the first batch of banknotes.

Secondly, the National Bank is deliberately presenting the new banknote in advance – two months before its date of issue – to allow banking and non-banking institutions to configure their equipment (ATMs, self-service terminals) in good time, and to give citizens and businesses the chance to familiarise themselves with the design and security features of this banknote.

The date of introduction into circulation was not chosen at random – it carries a certain symbolism.

It was on 4 September 1965, during the premiere of the film *Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors* at the ‘Ukraine’ cinema in Kyiv, that Vasyl Stus, together with Vyacheslav Chornovil and Ivan Dziuba, staged the first open public protest in the USSR against the mass political repression of the Ukrainian intelligentsia.

And on 4 September 1985, Vasyl Stus died in custody at the ‘Perm-36’ maximum-security camp.

Source: based on materials from the NBU