2024 • Kyiv
June 23, 2024 to June 25, 2024
Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I was unsure if I would ever be able to visit Kyiv and Ukraine in the way that it was prior to the war. Luckily, thanks to Ukrainian heroism, the capital still stands, and its historic sites are still standing. That is not to say that there still isn’t danger—air raid sirens are still common (although actual impacts are rare in Kyiv), and it seems that the Russian dictator still has his eyes set on capturing Kyiv eventually. With a significant amount of uncertainty about what the future may hold, I was resolved to visit this great city. Of course, because of the war, all air traffic in Ukraine has been suspended indefinitely, so I had to take the train in from Przemyśl, Poland. This is the same route that pretty much everyone has to take to get in and out of the country, including civilians and foreign dignitaries—even President Biden had to take the train from Przemyśl when he visited Kyiv in 2023. Because of the war, Kyiv was not what it would typically be like during peacetime, but I was still able to see some of the historic sites around the city.
One of the first sites of historical significance that I visited was St. Sophia’s Cathedral, which dates back to the 11th Century and was a key place of worship during the days of the Kyivan Rus’. It was named after the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and has endured many hardships, including Mongol invasions, World Wars, and foreign occupations. Inside are a number of breathtaking mosaics that offer an excellent example of architecture inspired by the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the same general area, I also visited St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery. While the history of the monastery is just as old as St. Sophia’s, the original building was destroyed by the Soviet Union in the 1930s and was only rebuilt in 1999. While it is a reconstruction, the monastery still gives off the feeling of being a medieval cathedral—the reconstruction is indeed faithful to the original. In front of St. Michael’s were a number of burned-out Russian vehicles from the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022. This, among other things, were clear reminders that the war was still going on even though life in the capital city felt somewhat normal.
Later on, while still in Kyiv, I made a point to go visit Maidan Nezalezhnosti (translated as Independence Square), where the Revolution of Dignity took place in 2014. Tired of corruption and wanting a more Western-oriented government, the people took to the streets. At the time, the president of Ukraine had a pro-Russian foreign policy and was looking to cement his power in the country in the way that the dictators of Belarus and Russia had cemented their power. Again, the people were not going to stand for that and took to the streets. After the government forces started firing live rounds into the crowd, all legitimacy by the would-be dictator of Ukraine was lost, and he had to flee the country. Seeing Ukraine pulling away from Russia’s orbit, this was when the first invasion of Ukraine took place with the seizure of Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts—in many ways, the war between Ukraine and Russia began in 2014, not 2022. Another important site that I visited was the Mother Ukraine monument, which is a monumental statue with a shield and sword looking east across the Dnipro River. While the statue was built during Soviet times, because she faces east, the monument has taken on an added symbolic weight as a guardian facing toward Russia with the sword unsheathed. Of course, while in Ukraine’s capital, there were a number of other sites that I visited before heading back to the train station to take yet another overnight train back to Przemyśl.
