News from Kiev

Forget dangerous driving, HIV, icy pavements, Mafiosi, and other dangers common in Kiev. There’s a new threat to the city’s residents and visitors, and it’s much scarier.

In the past week two unsuspecting victims have fallen down uncovered manholes into near boiling water.

On January 25 an 8 year old boy fell down a hole just a few metres from his school. He lived but suffered severe burns. Five days earlier, an elderly woman suffered a similar fate while walking her dog. She was badly burned and the dog cooked alive.

Like many cities in the former Soviet Union, Kiev has a district heating system. Heating and hot water is distributed from centralised heating stations to apartments and other buildings.

The official logo of the 2012 UEFA European Championship (EURO 2012) was unveiled today in Kiev, venue for the final of the competition.

Attendees at the ceremony included UEFA President Michel Platini, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, President Viktor Yushchenko, and Grigoriy Surkis, President of the Football Federation of Ukraine.

Ukrainian women’s movement FEMEN held a demonstration in Kiev today to highlight concerns of potential sex tourism during the 2012 UEFA European Championship (EURO 2012).

The rally was held on St Michael’s Square, prior to the official unveiling of the competition’s logo.

FEMEN is best known for its street protests against the increasing number of sex tourists visiting Ukraine. Most feature its members dressed as sex workers.

The group fears that the government may legalise prostitution in the run up to the competition, following similar moves in other countries that have held major sporting events.

Kiev was today confirmed as the host city for the final of the 2012 UEFA European Championship (EURO 2012).

Donetsk, Lviv, and Kharkiv were also confirmed as Ukrainian host cities.

The announcement was made at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Funchal, Madeira.

UEFA have previously issued warnings on Ukraine’s ability to host matches and made threats to relocate some or all of the matches to co-hosts Poland.

Concerns were raised about the suitability and number of hotels, and the state of roads and railways.

UEFA President Michel Platini said ‘In September, we had to reserve our opinion on three of the four candidate cities in Ukraine – considerable progress needed to be made. I can say to you that today, thanks to the enormous efforts and great sacrifices undertaken by the Ukrainian government, we can finally give the green light to a symmetrical tournament with four cities in Poland – Warsaw, Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk – and four cities in Ukraine – Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk. The final will take place in Kiev.’

Annual and quarterly passes for Kiev’s public transport system were phased out today.

Monthly and half-monthly tickets are still available. Monthly tickets, valid for one calendar month, can be purchased from the 22nd day of the previous month. Half-monthly tickets can be purchased from the 15th of the relevant month.

Costs are shown in the table below:

The fare for a single trip on the Metro using a token is UAH 1.70.

Contactless plastic cards are also available. The cards themselves cost UAH 7 and can be loaded with up to 50 trips.

An ice skating rink has opened on Kiev’s Independence Square.

The 540 sq m rink will operate daily from 8 am until 1 am until March 15 2010.

45 minute sessions will cost between Hr 20 – 45, with the cheapest rates being offered on weekday mornings.

City authorities have forecast that the population of Kiev could increase by around 1 million people by 2026.

At the beginning of 2009 the resident population of the capital was estimated at 2.724 million. The actual population, including persons such as migrant workers, was around 3.144 million.

According to projections the resident population in 2026 will be between 3.1 and 3.3 million, while the actual population will be between 3.7 and 3.9 million.

Factors contributing to the increase include a 25 percent increase in forecasted female fertility rates, and increases in life expectancy.

Supermarket company Billa-Ukraine will open a new store at Kiev’s historic Besarabsky Market next month.

The new store will open to the public on November 5 and will operate from 6 am until 1 am daily.

Besarabsky Market is an indoor market located at the southern end of Khreschatyk. It is named after the Bessarabian (Moldovan) merchants that used to live in this area.

Billa, owned by the Germany’s REWE Group, opened its first supermarket in Ukraine in 2000.

On October 14 2009, some major changes are being made to calling codes for telephone calls made within the Ukraine.

For landline calls within Ukraine there will be no need to dial 8 before the number. Under the new system, users should just dial the area code followed by the number. For example to call Kharkiv from Kiev just dial 057-xxxxxxx. Under the old system the telephone number was 8-057-xxxxxxx.

The codes for making international telephone calls from Ukraine have also changed. Users should now dial 00-country code-area code-xxxxxx). Previously calls overseas were made by dialling 8-10-country code-area code-xxxxxx).

The changes bring Ukraine’s dialling rules in line with those found in the European Union.

No changes have been made to the rules for dialling Ukraine from abroad.

Ukrainian airline Windrose Aviation will commence flights from Kiev’s Boryspil Airport (KBP) to Kaliningrad (KGD) on October 9 2009.

The flight will operate 3 times a week; on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. One way fares start at $134 excluding taxes.

Windrose also offers flights from Kiev to Ashgabat in Turkmenistan (ASB), Monastir in Tunisia (MIR), Moscow Domodedovo International Airport (DME), Simferopol (SIP), Tashkent in Uzbekistan (TAS), and Tbilisi in Georgia (TBS).