Getting to Kiev: By car

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The main route into Ukraine from the West is via Poland - the only 24 hour customs post is in Lvivska Oblast at a place called Krakovets. The nearest significant town on the Polish side is Przemysl, and it's straightforward to find by following route # 4 (which passes through Przemysl). When you arrive, the road is fairly narrow (no motorway/autobahn this) with a queue of trucks and vans parked to the right of the road. Don't park behind the goods vehicles, slip up the side of them and then feed into the customs area when the guy flags you forward (for courteous Europeans, you're not jumping the queue - commercial traffic goes through a different process). If you're in an EU registered car then make for the EU-passports, passport control section. Thence to Ukrainian passport control and then Ukrainian customs and then you're through. It used to be a nightmare, with apocryphal tales of 5-6+ hours at the border, but the Ukrainians have made great advances in efficiency.

Once through, just follow the main road towards Lviv (Львів) on the E40 - this is the route right across Ukraine to Kiev (and thence on to the East). Stick to this - the main towns on the way are Lviv, Rivne (Рівне), Zhytomyr (Житомир).Other than that, take care on the road, which although the main East/West highway, and the main road route into the EU, still remains in a miserable condition.