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50 free Kyiv trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kyiv sits on the hills above the Dnieper, a city that was already a trading post on the route from Scandinavia to Constantinople before the Varangians made it the capital of Kievan Rus'. It has been sacked by princes and Mongols, ruled from Vilnius, Kraków and Moscow, and since 1991 has been the capital of independent Ukraine. These 50 questions run the full span: Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv and Lybid, the Khazar-era name Sambat, Yaroslav the Wise and St. Sophia, Batu Khan in 1240, the Union of Lublin and Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the first electric tram in the Russian Empire, Khreshchatyk in 1941, independence in 1991 and Euromaidan. The modern city is here too: Vitali Klitschko, the three-line Metro and the funicular to Podil, Boryspil airport, the Mother Ukraine statue, Hydropark, Dynamo Kyiv's 13 Soviet titles, two Eurovisions and natives from Golda Meir to Milla Jovovich and Jan Koum. Easy questions stick to the river, the mayor and the landmarks; the hard tier asks about 12th-century princes, medieval chroniclers and island names. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation that adds one more fact. Play it solo or print it for a geography night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Kyiv straddles both banks of which river?
Dnieper
The river flows south through the city towards the Black Sea.
Q 02By population, Kyiv ranks roughly where among Europe's cities?
7th
The January 2022 count was 2,952,301 people.
Q 03The city's name is traditionally traced to which legendary founder?
Kyi
Legend says he founded the city with his two brothers and their sister.
Q 04What was the name of the sister of Kyiv's three legendary founding brothers?
Lybid
A monument to all four siblings stands on the Dnieper embankment.
Q 05Which people captured Kyiv in the mid-9th century, ending Khazar tribute?
Varangians
Under these Viking rulers the city became the capital of Kievan Rus'.
Q 06Whose forces completed the destruction of Kyiv in 1240?
Batu Khan
The city lost most of its influence for centuries afterwards.
Q 07Which city was the capital of Soviet Ukraine before Kyiv took over in 1934?
Kharkiv
Many new buildings were commissioned to give Kyiv "the gloss and polish of a capital".
Q 08What is Kyiv's traditional founding year?
482 CE
That date let the city mark its 1,500th anniversary in 1982.
Q 09What was the name of Ukraine's campaign to change how media spelt the city's name?
KyivNotKiev
Kiev derives from the Russian name and lost favour with Western outlets after 2014.
Q 10Which ruler erected St. Sophia Cathedral?
Yaroslav the Wise
A monument to him stands on Andriivskyi Descent.
Q 11How many times did Kyiv change hands between 1146 and 1246?
47
It was ruled by 24 princes, and in 35 cases the tenure lasted under a year.
Q 12Which prince sacked Kyiv in March 1169 and carried off the Theotokos of Vladimir icon?
Andrey Bogolyubsky
He ruled Vladimir-Suzdal and left the old town in ruins.
Q 13Which 1362 battle brought Kyiv into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania?
Blue Waters
Grand Duke Algirdas incorporated the city and surrounding lands after the victory.
Q 14Which 1569 union transferred Kyiv to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland?
Q 21On what date in 1991 did Ukraine's parliament declare independence in Kyiv?
24 August
The declaration came during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Q 22Who became mayor of Kyiv in June 2014?
Vitali Klitschko
The former boxer won re-election in 2020 with 50.52% in the first round.
Q 23What is the highest temperature ever recorded in Kyiv?
39.4 °C
It was set on 30 July 1936; the record low is −32.9 °C from January 1951.
Q 24Which of these is one of Kyiv's two major synagogues?
Lublin
Kyiv then became the capital of Kyiv Voivodeship.
Q 15Which Cossack leader's army entered Kyiv in 1649?
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
His equestrian statue by Mikhail Mikeshin stands near St. Sophia Cathedral.
Q 16Saint Vladimir University, founded in 1834, is now named after which poet?
Taras Shevchenko
Shevchenko worked as a field researcher and editor for its geography department.
Q 17In what year did the Russian Empire's first electric tram line open in Kyiv?
1892
It was only the third electric tramway in the world.
Q 18In which year did the German occupation of Kyiv end?
1943
The city had been occupied since 19 September 1941.
Q 19Which main street did hidden NKVD officers dynamite shortly after the 1941 occupation?
Khreshchatyk
The buildings burned for days and left 25,000 people homeless.
Q 20Roughly how far north of Kyiv is the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant?
100 km
A prevailing south wind blew most of the 1986 fallout away from the city.
Brodsky Choral Synagogue
The other is the Great Choral Synagogue; the community numbers about 20,000.
Q 25Which monastery joins St. Sophia Cathedral on the city's UNESCO World Heritage listing?
Kyiv Pechersk Lavra
Both are also part of the Seven Wonders of Ukraine.
Q 26In which year did UNESCO place Kyiv's heritage sites on its World Heritage in Danger list?
2023
The committee cited the threat posed by the war.
Q 27Which palace, built from 1745 to 1752, is a Kyiv landmark?
Mariinskyi
It was reconstructed in 1870.
Q 28The giant Mother Ukraine statue is made of which metal?
Titanium
It stands at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.
Q 29Which whimsical Kyiv building is famous for its animal sculptures?
House with Chimaeras
The cylindrical Salut hotel and the Golden Gate are other noted sights.
Q 30In which two years did Kyiv host the Eurovision Song Contest?
2005 and 2017
They were the 50th and 62nd editions of the contest.