Having spoken Russian as a kid, since my family were immigrants and it was used a little bit in my house, I can definetly attest to how strange it is to hear someone speak Ukrainian.

You'll be sitting there listening and everything is going fine and then a few seconds into the conversation you'll think one of you had a stroke. It's like talking to someone in English and then they instantly migrate to a thick Irish-blacksmith dialect of English or maybe even cockney. You get the basis of what they're saying but it just isnt coming through at all.

Anyway Kyiv is definetly on the list of amazing places to visit.