A Ukraine Diary: Things to see in Kyiv when you have a free day and a half.

Hi All, This is going to be my last midweek update which focusses solely on my trip to Ukraine. The first two tried to get across some of my strategic perceptions from talking to policy-makers, etc. This is going to be a bit different—more of a travelogue of the few times I was able to go out and see some of the sights in the Kyiv area. It was very unusual to be a ‘tourist’ in a country at war—mostly because the great sights of Kyiv were very quiet with few visitors. You were thus able to see some of the really remarkable things almost alone, and with a sense of solitude that would not normally have been the case. On the other hand, when you went out at night for dinners, the amazing thing was the normality you experienced. Kyiv restaurants were doing a solid trade, the food was excellent, everything was done to a high standard. People were not full of good cheer, but they were definitely going about their life trying to hold on to normality as much as possible.

High Altar of St Sophia, Kyiv, with 12th century mosaic behind.

Sights

Kyiv is an enormous, sprawling city, that stretches along and across the Dnipro river. As soon as you get to the center, you understand why the Vikings chose it as a settlement. The Dnipro itself is a wide, deep river which affords excellent navigation up from the Black Sea. As the Vikings came upriver (which would have been pretty easy in the shallow drafted boats I imagine) they would have seen this series of hills appear on the east bank, a perfect place to build a fortification to control river movement—and that is where you have Kyiv. In a generally flat area, they found a great hill to command a great river.

Dnipro River at Kyiv