Kyiv

Kyiv probably existed as a commercial centre as early as the 5th century, and legend names its founders as three brothers, Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv, and their sister Lybid, who are commemorated by a monument on the Dnieper embankment. A Slavic settlement on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, it paid tribute to the Khazars until Varangians took it in the mid-9th century. It became the capital of Kyivan Rus, whose ruler Volodymyr adopted Christianity in 988 and whose son Yaroslav the Wise built Saint Sophia's Cathedral.

The Mongol siege of 1240 left the city in ruins, and for centuries it lost most of its influence. Under Lithuanian rule its core was the riverside district of Podil, below a castle on Zamkova Hora. Kyiv prospered again in the industrial boom of the late Russian Empire, reaching about 250,000 people by 1900, and after the wars of 1917–21 became part of Soviet Ukraine, whose capital it became in 1934.

The Second World War devastated it. Soon after German troops arrived in 1941, Soviet agents dynamited most of the buildings on Khreshchatyk, and at Babyn Yar the occupiers murdered tens of thousands of the city's Jews in September 1941; more than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed there. Kyiv became the capital of independent Ukraine in 1991, and its Maidan was the stage for the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the protests of 2013–14. In February 2022 Russian forces tried to seize the city but were repelled on its outskirts; since their retreat from the region in April 2022, Kyiv has been subject to frequent air strikes. In September 2023 UNESCO placed Saint Sophia and the Lavra on its List of World Heritage in Danger.

Kyiv is the country's political, religious and cultural centre. Its sacred sites, the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra and Saint Sophia Cathedral, have drawn pilgrims for centuries, and the city regards itself as the cradle of Eastern Slavic Christianity. The Lavra has been at the centre of the dispute between the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the church formerly tied to Moscow.

Language has become a marker of identity. Both Ukrainian and Russian were long spoken here; Ukrainian is the official language, and many streets, squares and metro stations bearing Russian names have been renamed, especially since 2022. Theatres, galleries, clubs and cafés have kept working between alerts, and a volunteer culture of fundraising and support for the army runs through the city.

The calendar has its own markers. Kyiv Day, established in 1982, is celebrated on the last weekend of May with performers in the streets and fireworks, and the open-air museum at Pyrohiv preserves the folk architecture and folkways of the regions of Ukraine within the city limits. Football is followed closely: Dynamo Kyiv, which often plays at the Olimpiyskiy stadium, was the most successful club in the history of the Soviet Top League, and Obolon Kyiv also plays in the top league. The capital's monuments are being reread too — the Soviet emblem on the Motherland Monument's shield was replaced with the Ukrainian trident in 2023.

As of January 2022 the population of Kyiv was 2,952,301, making it the largest city in Ukraine and one of the most populous in Europe; it straddles both banks of the Dnieper, with the historic centre on the hilly right bank and large residential districts on the left.

Kyiv has the highest level of business activity in the country. Its economy rests on government, finance and services, high-tech industries and many universities and higher education institutions, after the decline of the Soviet-era armaments industry. The most expensive property is in Pechersk and around Khreshchatyk, while new apartment buildings in districts such as Obolon along the Dnieper are also sought after.

Life under martial law sets the rhythm. Air raids by drones and missiles are frequent, so many people spend hours in corridors, shelters or metro stations, whose underground stations serve as bomb shelters; during alerts the metro stops crossing the river. A night-time curfew empties the streets, and strikes on the power grid have caused power cuts. Between alerts people go to work and school, cafés and shops open, and the city keeps a determined normality.

Kyiv has given its name to two well-known dishes. Chicken Kyiv is a chicken fillet pounded and rolled around cold butter, coated with egg and breadcrumbs and fried or baked; its origins are disputed, but it is particularly popular across the former Soviet states. The Kyiv cake, tort Kyivskyi, has been made in the city since 6 December 1956 by the former Karl Marx Confectionery Factory, now part of Roshen: two light layers of meringue with hazelnuts, a buttercream-like filling and a chocolate glaze, sold in a box decorated with a horse chestnut leaf, a former emblem of the city.

Everyday Ukrainian cooking is easy to find: borshch, varenyky dumplings, kholodets meat aspic, holubtsi cabbage rolls and mlyntsi pancakes are widely served in the city's restaurants.

The Bessarabskyi Market, a hall built in 1910–12 at the south-west end of Khreshchatyk, and the Zhytniy Market in Podil are among the city's markets. Beer is brewed in the city by Obolon, one of its notable enterprises, and the streets of Podil and the centre hold most of the cafés and bars.