Kyiv

Kyiv (Київ), also known as Kiev (Russian: Киев), is the capital of Ukraine.

Kyiv is a very big city, however it has a very efficient metro (underground) system for hitching out of the city in all directions.

Northeast towards Chernihiv, Belarus, Moscow (Russia)
Take the metro to Chernigovskaya (Черниговская). Out of the station, walk down 200m to the Brovarski Prospekt (броварски проспект). You'll most likely see locals hitchhiking there already, just walk a bit further up the road to find a convenient spot. The first car should bring you to the next ГАИ (GAI) police post. Do not accept any rides to the city of Бровари (Brovari), as there will be no useful spots to hitchhike along the road. Best is to catch rides only towards Семполки (Sempolki) or Калита (Kalita), there you'll find a GAI post as well. If hitchhiking towards Russia, get off at the eastward junction after 100km. There, it's easy to hitch further rides towards Russia.

East towards Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy
Take the metro to Boryspilska (БОРИСПIЛЬСЬКА) station (the second last on the green line). There you find a huge roundabout - walk around the roundabout until you see the turn off to Kharkiv (XAPKIB). Walk down the road, and you'll probably see a lot of people also hitching there (there were around 40 last time some anonymous hitchhiker did it in the middle of winter); walk to the end of the queue and try to look like you're going a long distance - most people will only be going 30 or 40 km. Try to look different. You can stand a little bit further (close to the motorway sign), put your backpack in front of you and use the thumb gesture or a sign. Cost to get there: 2 UAH (1 metro token, which is about EUR 0.19)

Alternative: From Kharkivska district, use marshrutka #317a to Borispil. Stay on the marshrutka until the last stop (at the end of the city). From there, you can walk 2km more to the crossroad where road P08 (transit road around Kyiv, especially for trucks) crosses. Behind it, you should find a nice spot to Poltava or Kharkiv.

Towards Sumy: From the metro LISOVA take marshrutka #327 towards DYMYTROVE (driving through BROVARY). (Better check with the driver if he's driving to DYMYTROVE directly.) Get off at the last stop. Walk eastwards across the bridge over the E95 highway. Stand here at point B.

South-East towards Dnepropetrovsk (M04)
Take the metro to Vydubychi (ВИДУБИЧІ) station (green line) and walk to the car market. Try hitchhiking there. Cost to get there: 2 UAH

Northwest towards Lublin (Poland) (M07)
Take the metro to the station Akademmistechko. From near the metro station, take a minibus (marshrutka) to Irpen (Ирпе́нь), which as of June 2012 costs 5 UAH. When you see the large stele ИРПЕНЬ and the bus takes a left turn, get out. The M07 road goes straight ahead from the intersection that the bus turned at. Cross under the bridge and hitch just after the next intersection.

It is worth accepting one or two lifts from locals, in order to get further out of the Kyiv metropolitan area. After that, there are very few towns for most of the length of the M07, so if you stop a truck it is likely to take you all the way to Kovel. The road enters Poland at the Dorohusk-Jahodin border crossing.



West towards Lviv, southwest towards Chernivtsi (M06)
Take the metro to the station Zhytomyrska (Житомирська, the second to last stop on the red line). From there walk west along the street Peremogi prospekt (Перемоги проспект) until you cross the bridge over the ring road. You can hitch from the bus stop right after the bridge. Attention: Girls be careful, in the evening there are prostitutes working, so tell to the driver that you are hitchhiking immediately!

Hitchiking from here can take some time, as there is also a lot of local traffic, so in case you´re standing here for too long, take a marshrutka direction Zhytomyr, and hop off at the next village called Dmytrivka. Then you're already along the motorway where most traffic goes long-distance. In addition to that, the bus stop is quite spacious, so trucks can more easily stop here than at the Zhytomyrska spot.

If you are going southwest, then you turn at the town of Zhytomyr 100 km west from Kyiv.

South towards Odesa (M05)
Get the metro Lybidska (ЛИБІДСЬКА) station (last one on blue line). When getting out of the metro, walk up the stairs and walk to the right. Follow the tunnel for 250 m and go up the stairs there to the left. You might see the road to the left and little shops to the right. Walk this way up for 250–300 m until you see the bus stop (see picture) for trolleybus number 2 or 43. Take the trolleybus until the last stop Kibcentr (КІБЦЕНТР). There you'll find a police post, you can just hitchhike behind this post as there is a large area for cars to stop. But take care, drivers tend to use the parking lane to overtake slow traffic along the road!



Kiew Киев