You are hereBeyond the Border: Ukraine, its people and places

Beyond the Border: Ukraine, its people and places


Beyond the borders of Europe - in other words, the EU, likes Ukraine. It is as large country, as big as France, Spain and Germany put together, with major differences between the east, sovietised, mainly Russian speaking and centre of heavy industry and the west, which is rural with lovely rolling landscapes and fascinating old towns. Here you find gems of architecture: Baroque cathedrals, monasteries and palaces, ancient synagogues and gravestones which bear witness of peoples lost for ever: Polish and Jewish, who once called this lovely land their home.

Ukraine... I have loved our explorations of West Ukraine but now I am in Kiev. It is winter. The temperature drops to - 18 and the streets are inches deep in ice. I do not venture out alone. I clutch my companion with one hand and pick at the ice with my walking pole - not stick: poles are for active walkers, sticks are for the bent elderly seen as such on road signs in UK.

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