Kiev is one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, its official history dating back to the 5th century, although settlement on this location was present since much earlier. By late 9th century Kiev became the chef-lieu of the emerging state of the Eastern Slavic tribes, and between the 10th and early 13th century, it reached its golden age as the capital of the first Ukrainian state known today as Kievan Rus, (''Kyivan Ruthenia, or Rus-Ukraine''), which predated modern Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
In the middle of the 13th century Kievan Rus was overrun by the Mongols, and later this century Kiev became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1654 Kiev was liberated from the commonwealth by Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who then promptly signed the city over to become a protectorate of Russia.
In 1775 it was completely annexed by the Russian Empire. The city remained under Russian rule, with brief, but uncertain, periods of independence in between 1918 and 1920. During these two centuries, Kiev experienced growing Russification and Russian immigration. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kiev became the capital of independent Ukraine and is now quickly learning the role of a large European capital.
According to the last census (2001) Kiev has a population of 2,600,000, although it's generally acknowledged that, in 2006, that the population is over 3 million. About 85% declare themselves as Ukrainians, 12% as Russians, there are also Armenian, Azeri, Belarusian, Jewish, Georgian, Polish, Romanian and Tatar minorities. Today, not only has the population of Kiev likely increased, but also percentage of Ukrainians declaring Ukrainian nationality, as a result of the strong nationalist movement after the October 2004 Orange Revolution. Nevertheless, even most ethnic Ukrainians in Kiev tend to use Russian more frequently than Ukrainian both in business and in everyday conversation.
About 40% of the population has secondary education.
The average summer temperature is 24__C, and in winter is -4__C.
Russian is widely spoken in Kiev, particularly in business, including shops and restaurants. The common English name for the city, "Kiev," is a transliteration from the Russian language. The transliteration of the city's name from Ukrainian is "Kyiv", and this variation is used in many English language materials in Ukraine.
Many people in Kyiv are hospitable and will be eager to help you. However, if you're from Western Europe or North America, you may find service in restaurants and shops less attentive than you're accustomed to.
The '''Boryspil International Airport (KBP)''' [http://www.airport-borispol.kiev.ua/] (_M?_w_~_p_____t_~_y_z _p_u____________ "_A_____y____?_|__") is about 40 minutes from the city center. The city's second airport Zhulyany (IEV) (_p_u____________ "_G___|___~_y"), used mostly for domestic flights, is located 20 minutes from city center.
Ukraine has two major international airlines - Ukraine International Airlines [http://www.ukraine-international.com/eng/] (_M?_w_~_p_____t_~? _@_r?_p_|?_~?? _T_{___p?_~_y - Mizhnarodni Avialiniyi Ukrayiny) and Aerosvit [http://www.aerosvit.ua/eng] (_@_u_____R_r?__). These airlines have daily flights to major European cities. Aeroflot, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Czech Airlines [http://www.czechairlines.com/], Delta [http://www.delta.com/], Finnair, KLM, Lufthansa, Malev and other airlines have scheduled flights to Borispol airport. Semi-Budget airlines flying to Kiev include AirBaltic and Estonian Air. Budget airline Wizz Air [http://wizzair.com/] have flights to several european cities. There are occasional budget charters from Italy, and in summer, Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines runs charters to destinations including Italy and Turkey. Aerosvit and Delta are the only airlines with non-stop service to North America.
The simplest way to get to the city center is to take a marshrutka. They leave very regularly, cost 25UAH, and go to the plaza behind the main train station, from which you can easily get onto the Metro and to many places in Kiev. A taxi will cost five to ten times as much, particularly if you take one from one of the people who meet travellers off the plane with the promise of taxis.
There is a regular bus service between airport and Kiev city center (ploshcha Peremohy (___|_____p _P_u___u_}___s_y) and Central Railway station (bus schedule [http://www.airport-borispol.kiev.ua/transport/public.html ]). Buses depart frequently and the cost is approximately four dollars. On average it takes 60-70 minutes to get to city center by bus.
'''Boryspil Departure Advisory'''
During Spring of 2008, the Passport Control and Security checkpoints for Terminal B (international) departures have been rearranged. In the present configuration, during busy travel times, there can be very large queues waiting to go through security. Travelers flying to the United States may be required to go through a second security checkpoint. A traveler who enters Terminal B two hours before departure may cut it very close to missing the flight! Coming to Terminal B three hours before departure will provide a more comfortable time margin.
'''Update''': it is not that bad anymore (September 2008; Concurred: April 2009). Going through check-in queue, passport control queue, and security queue may be as fast as 30 minutes. Also going to the airport earlier than two hours before the flight time makes no sense as the check-in counters open two hours before the scheduled departure time. Just keep in mind that going from the city to the airport may take anything between 30 minutes and 2 hours depending on city traffic.
'''Update2''': It can also take a lot of time when you arrive. Passport control upon arrival can take more than an hour if there are several flights arriving around the same time. Plan your first day schedule accordingly. Standing in line is not the norm for Ukrainians, so learn to line hop if you want to get though passport control quickly.
Kiev's central railway station, Kyiv-Passazhyrskyi (_K_y?_r-_P_p___p_w_y_______{_y_z), is located close to city centre. The metro station "Vokzalna" (_}_u______ "_B___{_x_p_|___~_p") links to the railway station.
It has daily trains to all major cities and towns in Ukraine. International trains to Austria, Belarus, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia.
Railway timetable in English [http://www.poezda.net/en/web]
Average travel time by train to some European cities: Berlin - 24 hours, Moscow - 14 hours, Vienna - 33 hours, Warsaw - 18 hours, Bucharest - 27 hours, Chisinau - 17 hours, Krakow - 19 hours.
Average traveltime by train to some Ukrainian cities: Lviv - 10 hours, Kharkiv - 8 hours, Simferopol - 18 hours
Ukraine Connections specialise in supplying train tickets for foreigners visiting Ukraine and Crimea [http://www.ukraineconnections.co.uk]
Trains can be booked in advance to Kiev from European cities such as Krakow from bahn.de [http://bahn.de/] (Update: DB were unable to book trainjourneys into Ukraine from Krakow, as of Mar 09)
The main route into Ukraine from the West is via Poland - the only 24 hour customs post is in Lvivska Oblast at a place called Krakovets <!-- ? -->, which as a 'place' is essentially just the customs post - and it's not marked on most maps either. The nearest significant town on the Polish side is Przemysl, and it's straightforward to find by following route # 4 (which passes through Przemysl). When you arrive, the road is fairly narrow (no motorway/autobahn this) with a queue of trucks and vans parked to the right of the road. Don't park behind the goods vehicles, slip up the side of them and then feed into the customs area when the guy flags you forward (for courteous Europeans, you're not jumping the queue - commercial traffic goes through a different process). If you're in an EU registered car then make for the EU-passports, passport control section. Thence to Ukrainian passport control and then Ukrainian customs and then you're through. It used to be a nightmare, with apocryphal tales of 5-6+ hours at the border, but the Ukrainians have made great advances in efficiency.
Once through, just follow the main road towards Lviv (_L___r?_r) on the E40 - this is the route right across Ukraine to Kiev (and thence on to the East). Stick to this - the main towns on the way are Lviv, Rivne (_Q?_r_~_u), Zhytomyr (_G_y_____}_y__). Watch out about 15-20 km inside Ukraine, The village is called Mostyska (_M_______y_____{_p) as they have gone crazy about traffic calming measures here (speed bumps or sleeping policemen). They're like icebergs across the road, and very badly marked. And there are about 4 or 5 sets of them through the village. Other than that, take care on the road, which although the main East/West highway, and the main road route into the EU, still remains in a miserable condition. And you'll soon realize why Ukraine has such poor statistics in relation to driver and pedestrian fatalities and injuries. Drive defensively is the optimum advice re the roads, other road users and the walking, riding public.
International buses stop at the central station. There are busses coming in from Germany
Kiev can seem quite foreign to the western tourist, as all signage is in Cyrillic script. Kiev is still largely a city where very few people know English, and the likelihood of encountering an English speaker is low - but not impossible. For the non-Russian or Ukrainian speaker, it's quite possible to get around easily, and it is a very interesting city to explore. And it never hurts to speak English - often, a shop assistant will ask customers if they can speak English and act as a translator.
It is advisable, however, to pick up a pocket Russian or Ukrainian phrasebook, and learn the Cyrillic alphabet, which can be fun and is easy to learn. Spend some time practising key words and phrases (e.g. 'hello', 'thank-you' and 'bill please'). Even what you regard as a feeble attempt at Ukrainian or Russian will amuse most people to the point where they are comfortable engaging in pantomime or trying out the little bit of English they know.
It is polite to chat loudly (e.g., in Metro) and wave one's hands.
Pick up a "Kyiv Tour Guide" map book (Geosvit books - around US$3-4), which is available at a number of kiosks or at the central post office. Basic tourist maps are available at the baggage carousel at Boryspil Airport. If you are spending much time in Kiev, get the matching Ukrainian version of your map - many locals have as much trouble with the version that is transliterated to latin characters as you have with the version in the cyrillic characters. When asking for directions or setting out in a taxi, it helps to locate the place you want on the English map and then point out the same spot on the Ukrainian version.
There are two types of city-run buses available: bus (_p_r_____q____) and trolleybus (_______|_u_z_q____). These can be hailed from assigned stops, which are marked by a sign on an telegraph pole. These are often very crowded during peak hours, but then the norm is to push your way in. Once on board, you need to validate your ticket by punching a hole in it. If you can't get near the hole puncher, ask someone to validate your ticket for you. Cost for both is currently 1.50 UAH and tickets are available from kiosks throughout the city.
You can also comfortably travel short distances on route taxis or mini-vans called "Marshrutky" (_M_p___________{_y). These are private run vehicles that travel assigned routes, which are listed on the front of the bus. You can hail a Marshrutka at the assigned bus stops. When you board, you pay the driver directly, or, if you're not near the driver, pass the money to the nearest passenger who will pass it to the driver. Your change will be returned in reverse order. When you are reaching your destination, simply yell out to the driver to stop (some 100 meters in advance to the bus stop you need). If you overshoot (mini-vans are quite material bodies having inertia, and not unlikely to move by central or left side of the road), you get a nice walk and a driver gets a little extra stress a day. The fare ranges from 1.50 UAH to 2.50 UAH.
Marshruka routes can be hard to figure out, but they have a list of stops on the window and a Metro logo for the metro stops. The best way to figure out where these go is to ask some of the locals. Also, certain city maps feature the routes of the Marshrutky (better re-check, especially in case of last-year guide and time shortage). The one downside to using Marshutka's however is that they tend to be a little overpacked (understatement) and very hot.
There are two types of taxi in Kiev - official company taxis, and 'gypsy' cabs.
As with many former Soviet cities, it's perfectly acceptable for any car to stop and pick you up if you hail a cab. An unmarked vehicle is a 'gypsy' cab. To hail a ride, simply stand with your arm out, palm down. When a car pulls over, negotiate a fare - as a rule of thumb, rides within the downtown are should not cost more than 15 UAH and moving across the city might be anywhere from 30 to 50 UAH (also depends on car model, day time, weather and traffic conditions, whether both of you need to get to at least same part of the city so choose proper street side, and to some degree on your gender and numbers -- generally, a few girls would find it way more easy to get by than several slightly drunk men; it's also safe enough compared to, e.g., New York {where one would be wise to make use of the 24hr subway} for a single girl at 3AM to use this kind of transport when taxi's not available although don't count on this 100%).
Official company taxis can be hailed, or booked over the phone. There is usually someone who speaks English on the other end of the phone, simply ask 'pa angliskiy pazhalsta' (or, probably, "English please"). The operator will give you a quote, which will save you from the sometimes intimidating process of negotiating on the street.
However, fares do vary widely. On the same route, a local paid UAH15 and the driver quoted this author UAH60 and settled for UAH30. YMMV too.
The Metro (Ukrainian: _M_u______) is a very fast subway system, and is easy to navigate once you realize that all three metro lines (red, blue and green) go through city centre. In total there are 47 metro stations in Kiev as of May, 2009.
When you enter the Metro, you must purchase a token to travel from the cashdesk, Kasa (Ukrainian: _{_p___p). One token is valid for one trip, no matter how far you go. A token is 1.70 UAH (17 eurocents/ 22 cents as of May, 2009) and one needs to slip the token into the turnstyles to enter. (Just a note of caution, make sure you walk through the correct side of the turn style or you will be hit with a metal gate that will slam shut.) You can also obtain a monthly ticket with a magnet tape, which is only available for sale during the first week of the calendar month or the third week for half the price (actually not strictly so).
At platform level, all signage is in Cyrillic [http://www.borispil.kiev.ua/transport/detail/metro.html], so it's best to correlate the Cyrillic station names on the wall to the transliterated names on your map book. Once inside the train, the metro route maps over central windows have names transliterated into latin letters, and there is a station announcement as the metro approaches each station as well as TV screens in all carraiges that between stations show adverts, but flag up the impending station as it approaches it, and the next staion as it departs. Unfortunately not all trains are equipped with the TV screens.
Metro stations where you can interchange have two different names - one for each line. If you're changing lines, the other station can be reached by an overpass in the centre or one of the ends of the platform.
Trains run every 30 sec. to 2:30 minutes in business hours and from 10 to 15 minutes from 11 p.m till 1 a.m. at the last station. Even so, they are often very crowded - there are a lot of reports of pickpockets and bag slashings, so keep your hands on your belongings. And be prepared to push, as this may be the only way you get on the train, during peak hours.
It's interesting to note that the Kiev metro has some of the deepest stations in the world. The Arsenal'na station (Ukrainian: _@_____u_~_p_|___~_p) station is the deepest metro station in the world, at 107 meters deep, and the Universytet station (Ukrainian: _T_~?_r_u_____y___u__) has one of the longest escalators in the world (87 meters long).
If you enable "Cell Info Display" on your GSM phone, it will show you the name of the station (in transliterated Latin characters... (for UMC and Kyivstar) just like your map) when you are underground in the vicinity of a station. And your mobile/cell/handy should work on most of the network, including between stations.
Other forms of public transport in Kiev include:
There are two parts to the modern complex: the upper lavra, owned by the state and consisting of a number of museums (entry fee); and the lower lavra, owned by the Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriach) and consisting of the caves (you'll need 1 UAH to buy a candle to enter). Do not miss the display of micro-miniatures in the upper lavra. It sounds lame, but it it fascinating.
You can enter the caves in the lower part if you dress correctly (women MUST cover their hair and wear skirts, no shorts. Expensive scarves are for sale there). Women can only just get away with pants in the winter. Metro: Arsenal'na
There are a number of private schools where you can learn Ukrainian or Russian, either part-time or full time [http://russian.com.ua/]. There are also experienced teachers in the city - check out resources such as Kyiv In Your Pocket, The Kyiv Post [http://kyivpost.com/], and What's On Weekly for details of schools and teachers.
Full day in Kiev:
While it is free to enter the caves, you must purchase a taper candle in order to light your way. The caves are not recommended for the claustrophobic or overly tall. Once you're in there, it's hard, even impossible to turn around and go back out - you have to keep going.
For the second half of the day, visit the museums and churches in the Upper Lavra. English speaking guides - both official and unofficial - are available to show you around the sights.
Metro: Percherska
Metro: Hidropark
Half day in Kiev:
'''Soviet tours a day with a blast: AK 47 gun shooting, Tank driving''' ''Italic text''
Foreigners can sometimes find work teaching their native language (English, Swedish, whatever). Pay is usually decent enough to live on in Kiev if you get enough pupils and live by local standards.
As is the nature in a global economy, professionals with skills in demand, e.g. accountants and IT professionals, can be employed with global firms in Kiev, without knowledge of Russian or Ukrainian languages.
Getting a working permit (visa) is a necessity for foreigners if they are going to be employed by any legal entity (Exceptions apply only for international institutions and representative offices of foreign companies). The working permit is significantly different from the "classical" form as it is more of a hiring permit. The potential employer has to apply with the labour administration for hiring an non-resident employee. With the application a complete cv as well as documents showing an accredited education have to be submitted.
Go to Andriyivskyy Descent (''Andriyivskyi Uzviz'') for a nice collection of things. They sell traditional thing, old communistic goods (real good but also fake mass-produced), folkloric things, ... Every sunday there's a market. The rest of the week there are a few people selling things, but it's usally not worth to go.
The unit of currency is the Hryvnia (UAH) (_s___y_r_~__) [pronounced: Garevina, in Russian] and has currently fallen to about 8 UAH to the US Dollar. There are many exchanges that will convert USD or Euro to UAH, just look for signs with exchange rates posted on just about any block. Exchange rates vary a lot and deteriorate fast when you get into less competitive places or outside of standard business hours. You should also make sure to get a receipt when buying UAH. Due to the global economic slow down, US Dollars are in high demand and you would save yourself a considerable amount of money (and headaches) by withdrawing your UAH from an ATM. Do not change money at the airport unless you have to, since rates there are not as good as in the city center.
It is often expected that one carries small change in Kiev. Most retail establishments will scowl at you if you try to pay for a UAH4 purchase with a UAH20 note. They generally keep very little change on hand and will always ask if you have the right amount of kopeks. The EU is currently investigating whether Ukraine has a kopek deficiency. Keep small change to use the restrooms!
All major credit cards and debit cards can be used any ATM throughout Ukraine. You can withdraw either US dollars or UAH. Be sure to contact your credit card company prior to your visit or they will freeze your card! As a backup, it is possible to get dollars from most banks using a cash advance from a Visa or Mastercard. There is a small service charge (3%) to do this in addition to whatever your bank charges. Debit cards such as maestro do work in ATMs.
Cirrus/Maestro bank cards could be most effective way to get cash in Ukraine. Aval Bank ATMs do not charge additional transaction cost to cash withdrawl transactions from foreign cards (unless you are withdrawing dollars). Your bank may charge you some amount for these transactions (e.g. Commonwealth Bank of Australia charges AUD $5). Most British banks charge about __1.50 for ATM transactions made outside of the UK.
Exchange rate in this case is usually better than in currency exchange booths.
For many people in Ukraine word ATM may sound unfamiliar - ATM is translated as bankomat (_q_p_~_{___}_p__) and can be found everywhere.
In general, it is very cheap to dine in Kiev by US standards. So long as you stay away from the places that totally pander to tourists, the food is great and cheap. Try the Borscht and the Mlyntzi and then try absolutely everything else. Baked goods are cheap and great too. Even the ice-cream on the street is great. An especially distinctive one is to the right from Khreshchatyk subway exit - blue kiosk with varying lengh of queue.
When you see vendors selling some liquid from big yellow/blue tanks on the street, you can be sure that it is "Kvas," which is a brewed bread drink. Some people like it and others hate it. It tastes a bit like malt, and there is no alcohol. Try "Odyn Malenkyi" (one small) drink.
You should not drink the tap water. It is advisable to buy 5l. bottles in the supermarkets; they usually have English section for "ingredients". You can always order "Bonaqua" (sparkling mineral water), but beer is just about as cheap.
Fast-food chains:
For anyone near '''Kyiv-Mohyla university''', there's a small cafetria-style place down a few steps on the ground floor of a building on the main square (near Illins'ka st).
The leading supermarket chains are '''"MegaMarket"''' (_M_u_s_p_M_p___{_u__), '''"Furshet"''' (_U_______u__), '''"Velyka kyshenya"''' (_B_u_|_y_{_p _{_y___u_~__), which are conveniently located to the city centre. '''The closest MegaMarket''' to town is on 50 Gorkoho (_C_______{___s__). This MegaMarket is big but can get busy. Foodstuffs are available on the ground level, and non-food available on the first level. You have to go through the cashier on each level, which means two long lineups on busy days.
'''The closest Furshet''' to the city centre, and most central supermarket, is located on the basement level of the Mandarin Plaza, which is at the back of Bessarbabsky Square. This supermarket stocks many imported goods, and also has five restaurants.
'''"Fora"''' (_______p) is a popular chain of mini-marts that are widely distributed, particularly on the Left Bank side of the city. They are about the size of 7-11 and stock most staple items, including toiletries, bread, dairy, sweets, and of course alcohol. Plastic bags are available but are not free, and they do not take credit cards. Bag your own groceries.
Do not forget to buy a few big jugs of bottled water such as Staryi Myrhorod (_R___p___y_z _M_y___s_______t) or Truskavetska (_S_______{_p_r_u_____{_p). Kyivskij tort (_{_y?_r_____{_y_z ________) is another thing you should eat in Kiev if you love cakes. Dark rye bread, Ryazhenka (_Q___w_u_~_{_p, ukrainian style yogurt), Kvas (_K_r_p__, fermented drink made of bread) could be also be interesting things to taste.
Chocolates, cakes, lollies, crisps and biscuits/cookies are widely available at low cost and very popular with Ukrainians - after years of being deprived western brands, snackfoods are becoming big business.
It's also worth checking out pubs and restaurants that offer business lunches during weekday lunch. These are set menus that usually cost around 40 UAH, and include soup, salad, meat dish and a drink.
There are several nice places in Kiev to get a drink. From small cafes that are only frequented by locals (they look dirty at first sight) to expensive places. Most locals buy some drinks (beer or vodka) at a stall in the street and drink it in a park, leaving their bottle for the homeless to collect and cash in. With this they often buy some chips or other salted things (I think it's squid, not sure, though tastes like seasalt).
As said in the Food section, Eric owns many venues. The prices are rather high for Kiev, which means quite reasonable by European standards. Beer is around $3, iirc.
There's another "brand" of cafes called '''"Babooin"''' ("_A_p_q___y_~", means baboon). They had 3 places located in Kiev downtown, but now due to high rent fees the only one is still open:
Military-themed bar Blyndazh (_A_|_y_~_t_p_w, means "entrenchment") at the basement of 15 Mala Zhitomyrska (200 m. off Maidan sq.). Small, cheap and popular, mostly student types.
There are two Belgian beer cafes. One is located across the road from the Golden Gate, close to the South Korean Delegation ('''Le Cosmopolite''', Vladimirskaya Ul.). The other is close to the Olympic Stadium ('''Belle-Vue'''; Ul. Saksahanskoho 7). Prices range between normal western prices (1.3 Euro for 0.5L of Stella Artois) and splurge western prices (4.5 Euro for 0.33L of Leffe Blond). Service is in perfect English usually and they do serve Belgian beer and traditional Belgian food (expensive).
There are more theme cafes over Kiev, but they are often hard to find. Therefore try meeting English speaking people in the above mentioned cafes.
Kiev has a nice club scene. Ranging from very cheap to overly-expensive you can find what you want.
'''Mobile (cell) phones''': GSM 900/1800 is used in Ukraine. This system is compatible with mobile phone networks used in Europe, most of Asia, Australia, New Zealand.
If you have unlocked GSM phone, you can get an ACE & BASE (Kyivstar) [http://www.kyivstar.net/en/personal/acebase/], Sim-Sim [http://www.sim-sim.ua/eng/main.php], Jeans (UMC/MTS) or Life:) [http://www.life.com.ua/index.php?lng=en] (Astelit) SIM card for a few dollars at street vendors which will give you a local number and free incoming calls. If you don't have an unlocked phone already, new ones can be had for USD 15-20 and a touch cheaper if you buy a pay-as-you-go sim card at the same time. Incoming calls are free in Ukraine so in extremis you can just SMS/text a request for a return call for a small charge.
T-mobile customers can get their (3 or 4-band) phones activated for travel, but the rates are unfriendly. If this is you, use SMS when you can.
If you are roaming in Kiev, SMS messages do work well. They are confirmed to work for US and UK T-mobile customers as well as UK Vodaphone customers and local Kyivstar customers. Do note that the size of the country and the relative low population densities of rural areas means that sometimes there are 'black-spots' where mobile/cell/handy's will not work. But of course these are away from the main cities/urban areas (and most of the main arterial road and rail routes also have reasonably consistent call signals)
If you are trying to call the US from your GSM phone, you may find that the access numbers for your calling card are blocked. Plan ahead and sign up with a callback service (such as UWT [http://www.uwt4me.com/] **warning, lead-time required**) before you start your travels and you can provoke them to call you (at much more favaroable rates) when you need to make a call.
The easiest way to maintain internet connectivity if you use your own laptop is to buy a 7-day unlimited Lucky Internet callback card. They are about UAH36 at the street kiosks. When you dial in, you will be initially firewalled off from everything until you activate by visiting their website [http://www.card.lucky.net]
Internet cafes have a good service. They usually have different types of computers with varrying prices. A bit higher than the metrostation on ul Khmelnytskoho (on the left side at a corner) there is one that is very good, open 24 hours non stop. The cheapest computers cover your basic needs, the most expensive ones are usually for hardcore gamers.
Also most foreigner-friendly cafes (see "Drink" section above) offer free Wi-Fi.
The usual "don't be stupid" advice seems to be adequate. Avoid drinking the water from the tap - bottled water is cheap & available everywhere (Morshinska is my brand of choice, both with and without 'gas'). Kiev is a generally open and friendly city and stays lively until at least 11PM in most districts.
If you are female, and especially if traveling alone, try to take a taxi instead of public transit after 9pm. These are prime drinking hours and the metro and marshrutky may be crowded with drunken men. This is particularly true on the weekends. Ask a local English speaker to call the taxi for you and get the amount of the fare in advance; they may greatly inflate the fare once hearing your accent.
Robberies and Scams on tourists are fairly common in Kiev. The best approach is to be extremely selfish and ignore anyone who approaches you. Avoid eye contact with suspicious looking people. If you do get caught up in a scam (such as the infamous Wallet scam or "Look i've just found money" scam, or even if you are stopped by someone claiming to be a policeman, simply ignore them and walk away or indicate that you want to call your embassy, or take them to the embassy to get the problem sorted. This will usually shake them off.
On the metro ALWAYS keep your belongings securely zipped as close to your skin as possible. Pickpockets are highly organised and often in gangs that know what they are doing.
There are occasional (rare) reports of visitors being shaken down by corrupt officials, often customs officials. Naturally, the best protection is to make sure that you stay on the correct side of the law and - if there is any question - keep your cool and do not become argumentative. It seems that the cost of an error is surrendering the object in question and paying a "fine." The officials are skilled at ensuring that people who argue miss their flights. Making, or simply communicating the intent on making, a cellphone call to your country's embassy has been known to clear up "problems" quicker than actually paying the "fine."
Some thieves like to abuse naive tourists, for example by playing plain clothes cop. They are rarely aggressive and not sure. They will only go to you if you're walking alone and don't look too familiar with the town. A bit of resisting usually shakes them off. (but not too much; you never know)
There is still some corruption in Ukraine, some services might openly ask you to bribe them to process your request and denying it might make them refuse to help you.
The people are very tolerant and it is only reasonable to assume that they expect the same in return.
Kiev was part of the former USSR. Some things work well and other things may be broken. There is no point in stressing about this. Arrive with that realization and be prepared to roll with a few surprises.