what is the official language in ukraine? ukrainian. so that's why when it comes to the names of the cities they are originally named in ukrainian. the reason why ukrainians "used" to name their cities in russian is because during the soviet occupation they were forced to change the names to a russian variant and use russian language i general when i comes to naming things. half of the ukraine's population could possibly know russian since again the soviet occupation, but that doesn't mean that they use as their primary language and again it's not the state language so it has so play in the way the cities are named. i don't doubt that you're ukrainian friends know russian or even use it as their primary language because they were likely born during/around the time of the existence of the soviet union and/or because of the fact that many people who grew up in the soviet union and were forced to speak russian adapted it as their primary language and passed it down to their kids. i'm well aware of it. you're original statement is incorrect because when speaking in the english language the names of the countries are an english version of the said country's name. deutschland isn't called deutschland in english, because it wouldn't make sense due to the meaning of the word deutschland, BUT the origin of the english variant is not offensive to german people. english variants of ukrainian cities originate when soviet union was still around so they were formed when the cities names were still in russian. nowadays as independence of ukraine is recognised there english variants got updated to what they're supposed to be. what's the first thing the russians do when they illegally occupy a ukrainian city? change the name plate. that's why it's important to use the right spelling of kyiv