Kyiv, Ukraine in 2016: The City I Remember
There's a version of Kyiv I can still reach with one click. It's September 2016: the trees are green, Podil is busy, church domes catch the afternoon light, and for eleven minutes I'm there again.
I was living in Ukraine then, so this doesn't feel like ordinary travel footage to me. It feels like someone accidentally saved a doorway.
Kyiv has changed enormously since that September. Some changes arrived naturally, others were chosen, and far too many were forced on the city by Russia's full-scale invasion.
The Video That Brings September 2016 Back
Dima of DiscoverWithDima recorded his walk through Podil and Kyiv's Upper Town on September 30, 2016. He moves quickly, but the video preserves more than a checklist of churches and viewpoints.
It catches the light, traffic, signs, balconies, ordinary conversations, and small details nobody realizes will become memories. Those are the moments that pull me back.
The original video no longer plays reliably as an embedded player on this site, but it's still available on YouTube. Rather than leave readers staring at a broken box, I'm linking straight to it:
Click here for a YouTube video of Kyiv as I remember it in September 2016.
This Wasn't “Kyiv Before the War”
It's tempting to describe 2016 that way, but it wouldn't be accurate. Russia had already occupied Crimea, and its war against Ukraine was continuing in the Donbas.
What the video captures is Kyiv before the full-scale invasion of 2022. The distinction matters, especially to Ukrainians whose war didn't begin when the rest of the world finally started watching.
Still, the Kyiv in these frames has an ease that's difficult not to miss. People wander through the day without air alerts interrupting lunch, curfew shaping the evening, or the low mechanical sound of a generator joining the city soundtrack.
- Introduces Ukraine through the faces and stories of its people
- Offers visual context for the country beyond breaking-news imagery
- A substantial gift for readers drawn to contemporary Ukrainian life
Kyiv in 2026
Ten years later, this 4K walk shows central Kyiv on a summer evening in August 2026.
