Good country, exhausting tourist industry

Ukraine is a genuinely beautiful and interesting place. St. Sophia Cathedral is worth every superlative thrown at it. The deruny is legitimately excellent. rich folk art tradition gave the trip real depth.

What I struggled with: the tourist infrastructure around the headline sites in Kharkiv is relentlessly commercial and language barrier outside tourist areas is a genuine friction point. You can feel the gap between authentic Ukraine and the packaged version sold to tourists. The authentic version wins, but you have to work to find it.