This is trip 4 to Ukraine, and 3 to Kyiv. All have been a week or less as they have been side trips from my Budapest. Both Ukraine Air and Wizz have direct flights from Budapest for under $75.
I've been to Lviv and Odesa, and while they are pretty amazing too; this place is a stunning cultural event that keeps pulling me back.
Safe? To the best of my knowledge, since independence, no tourists have ever been hurt here. Paris cant make that claim.
It has some of the same feel as Budapest did 15 years ago. Parts of town have the Prague party atmosphere. It's as "exotic" as Istanbul. What it lacks, outside of the churches and a few remaining Stalin Imperial Style buildings is great architecture.
What it does have that is unique is a nationalistic spirit, in the best sense of the word. The most popular T-Shirt slogan reads, "I am Ukranian ... Of Course I Love Freedom".
So you dont come here to see obsolete buildings or dead things under glass. You come here to stand in Maidan at sunset when some one amps up the national anthem and hundreds begin singing ... before returning to partying. You come for the monuments to and stories of Euromaidan and the battle for Donetsk Airport.
The government is still pitifully inefficient and corrupt, but people can say it out loud with safety, and there is optimism in the air.
If you want to walk amongst change, this is where you need to come.