Before the 13^th century, Kiev had been a blooming kingdom, but was already in decline when the Mongols conquered it. The Khan, needing a trusty vassal, then installed one Ivan, from a collection of mud hovels up north called Moscow, as ruler (the Mongols have had a lot of bad press in the course of history; to correct that view check out the story of the Mongol Hordes, the First Iron Curtain, Lost Opportunities, Inflation and Gutenberg’s Real Motives! ).

I suppose one historical highlight would be that the Ukrainians were the first ever - as far as we can tell - to domesticate horses! This was apparently in the 4^th century BC. They haven’t been this creative since ...

A highly recommended source for a more businesslike assessment of Ukraine is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s Country site.

We have been active in Ukraine since 1993. This enabled us to see a fair bit of the country, and all of us have tales to tell. Imagine traipsing around dome decrepit factory out in the sticks, in the middle of winter? Or driving for hours in a well-tried -and-trusted (read: old) people mover across the province, arriving well shaken and with a sore bum? Or trying to fly from Kharkiv to Kiev, only to learn that the flight is delayed due to fog, whilst the sun is shining brightly? Nobody will tell you anything else, of course. Naturally, the “airport” is just a little building, basically unheated, where there’s sweet Fanny Adams to do? Ah, flying. That would be another topic by itself. Air crashes are an issue, of course. Local flights are usually done in an Antonov AN-24, a rugged little turboprop (pictured on the right). One calms oneself by thinking that the plane must be good, otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten this old. If you’re really unlucky you’ll find yourself in a YAK-40.

Imagine sitting on the plane, idly looking out of the window, waiting for the engines to start. You see a mechanic sitting on the wing, with a puzzled expression on his face, repeatedly poking said wing. This goes on for a while. Then the mechanic shrugs and simply walks away. Any thoughts?

Always charming to see is the Flight Attendant strapping down for take-off, and proceeding to cross herself three times.

Then there was this flight from Budapest to Chisinau on a Yak-40: it was a hot day, and the engines - and therefore the air-con - were off. Waiting for take-off. Since it was getting stuffy inside the FA simply opened the emergency exit above the wing, i.e. unhooked the whole window section. So far, so pragmatic. Then the pilots walk in (you have to know this - in the CIS the pilots are always the last ones on, and the first ones off!), start the engines, and the plane taxies to the runway. As the engines are spooling up to take-off power, the FA deigns to replace the window.

See also a story from China !

Statistics on Russian air disasters here .

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