Trans Carparthians
I hear you on Kiev ...
One of my groups will prolly do Euro Tour in June and when it's over i am mapping out plan to head to Ukraine.
Mother was from there and so there is this compulsion to at least dip into Ukraine this time for a look - see.
Uzgorad got an interesting write up in The (NY) Times some months bk and suddenly brought this spot on the map into sharper focus , as one of the junctions /edge towns into Ukraine from the West , it looks interesting .
Lvov is the next biggest city along the way to Kiev and is still leaning to the West , and from what I understand Kiev is firmly in the more East /Russia leaning end of the country.
Funny there is an ad out now in town that says in some words ' see Kiev before the Guidebooks do it in'
Best of luck wid it and have a safe travel , tell us about it when you get back !