Walk through Kyiv

Walk through Kyiv is a round-up of pictures I didn’t share before, from Kyiv. I shared quite a few pictures from Kyiv in previous posts: Holodomor Museum, Pechersk Lavra (almost 1,000 years old church), I shared pictures of the burned russian metal and how Ukraine remembers its heroes.

Saint Sophia is one of the most important churches in Kyiv, alongside St. Michael and Pechersk Lavra. As I was in Kyiv for only 2 days, I did not have time to visit the interior. This picture was taken shortly after arriving in Kyiv with the overnight train from Lviv, at about 8-ish in the morning.
I would love to visit the church though, I saw pictures and it is stunning.

This is Kyiv train station…

and this is the interior, with that gorgeous chandeliers.

This is a picture from a lovely park, behind the St. Michael church which is visible in the back. It must be lovely to walk there in the summer.

This is iconic for Kyiv, the Glass bridge. It was busy with people walking, walking their dogs, or their children (or both), enjoying some lovely coffee from one of the many places that make all sort of specially coffee, or even bubble tea. I mentioned in another post that bubble tea and vegan alternatives to milk are available in these kiosks on the street, I just love that.

I wanted to see this bridge before I arrived in Kyiv. It is a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. The bridge opened in 2019 and on 10 October 2022 it was hit by a russian missile. The bridge was fully restored that year and now it is without any trace of the attack. I think it’s just incredible that it was repaired so quickly and that people are walking there, confident and defiant.

The views from the bridge are amazing.

I didn’t step on the glass, but my husband did. The cars are visible underneath the glass.

From the bridge the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People is visible. That was another construction I wanted to see.

This arch was renamed to the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People in May 2022. Before that it was called Peoples’ Friendship Arch, opened on 7 November 1982 to mark the 1,500th Anniversary of Kyiv. It was also made to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the ussr and the so-called “reunification of Ukraine with russia in 1654”. Yes, russian imperialism predates putin.

What is interesting about the arch is that even after russia’s invasion of 2014, this kept its name. Underneath the arch there were two statues of workers, one Ukrainian and one russian, depicted together. In the picture it is covered with boards. What I didn’t know when I visited it, is that on the day we were there the Ministry of Culture removed its official status and allowed its dismantling. The arch will not be dismantled, but it will get a new meaning.

On the right you can see a crack in it, it was added in 2018. That was placed by human rights activists as a sign of support for political prisoners illegally detained in russia and in the annexed Crimea.

The tube in Kyiv is not extensive, but it is cheap, fast, and clean.

This is a picture from Kyiv as seen from where we stayed there. This was close to the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square. More pictures of the square are in the post on remembering the heroes. This is where the people protested in 2014 and where a lot of memorials are placed.

Piana Vyshnia in the Maidan, it was both busy and lovely, of course.