Short answers, pulled from the story.
The name Kyiv comes from a legendary figure named Kyi, one of four brothers who supposedly founded the city alongside Shchek, Khoryv, and their sister Lybid. Some historians argue this origin is an etymological myth created later to explain the place name.
Traditional accounts cite 482 CE as the year of establishment for Kyiv, leading to a 1500th anniversary celebration in 1982. However, many researchers now believe the city emerged later, possibly in the late ninth century.
Nazi Germany occupied the city of Kyiv from the 19th of September 1941 until the 6th of November 1943. Axis forces killed or captured more than 600,000 Soviet soldiers during the Battle of Kyiv in 1941, and Germans massacred nearly 34,000 Jews at Babi Yar on September 29 and 30, 1941.
On the 24th of August 1991, the Ukrainian parliament proclaimed independence within Kyiv itself. The city has emerged as Ukraine's most pro-Western region since independence with National Democratic parties consistently receiving majority votes during elections held here.
Kyiv sits on both banks of the Dnieper River which flows southward toward the Black Sea. The older western section rests upon wooded hills known locally as Kyiv Hills featuring ravines and small rivers while expansion onto the eastern Left Bank occurred only during the twentieth century.