The country of Ukraine is situated to the extreme East of Europe. It borders the Russian Federation to the east and Hungary, Slovakia and Poland to it’s west. To the northern border of Ukraine, it shares a border with Belarus.

The capital city of Kyiv is located centrally in the country and to the North. The population of this majestic city is close to 3 million souls. Kyiv is an ancient city close to 2 thousand years old and one of the oldest cities in Europe. Ukraine as a country was known as ‘the breadbasket of europe’ , due to it’s rich agricultural land, and Kyiv was, and is, surely the prize gem.

Russia did not want to lose Ukraine as part of it’s territories, and apart from the historical ties and geographical importance of Ukraine, it was surely the majestic gem  that is ‘Kyiv’ that they sorely missed, and lost.

The city of Kyiv is situated on the Dnieper River. In fact the river divides the city in half. It is a powerful, impressive river that flows down to the black sea located to the south of Ukraine. One of the first thing that grabs you when you visit Kyiv is how spread out it is, and how green it is! A visit during the spring or summer is my personal favourite and you can go down to the beaches on the river and take a picnic, and have an amazing, cheap day out!

A question many people ask, ‘Should it be Kiev or Kyiv?’

Currently, Kiev is still most commonly used English name for the city, but since the 1995 adoption of by the Ukrainian government as a preferred spelling, the Ukrainianized version Kyiv is gaining usage, and is the official spelling used by Ukraine and the exact translation.

Kiev is actually the Russian language spelling and since Ukraine has been independant for years it has now been replaced by . Of course some tour operators etc. in the west are behind on this, but due to National Pride and the adoption of the most important bodies in the world, the correct spelling is being aggressively and patriotically pushed.

The forthcoming European Football Championship in 2012 should clear away the cobwebs in Western Europe.

Following the independence in 1991, the Ukrainian government introduced the national rules for transliteration of geographic names from Ukrainian into English.

Kyiv is the spelling used by the United Nations, all English-speaking foreign diplomatic missions, several international organizations, Encarta encyclopedia, and by some media, notably in Canada and Ukraine.

On October 3, 2006, the United States federal government changed its official spelling of the city name to Kyiv.

Resources:

United Nation Map of Ukraine & Kyiv http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/ukraine.pdf
Resolution of the Ukrainian Commission for legal Terminology 1995 http://www.uazone.net/Kiev_Kyiv.html

U.S Department of State Change Official Spelling to ‘Kyiv’ 2006 http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2006/74784.htm