A few reflections on my time visiting Kyiv

By Adam Siegel on June 05, 2025

Last month I was honored to have the rare opportunity to travel to Kyiv for a project we’re doing there in partnership with another country in Europe. Despite being a consultant in my previous career and traveling almost weekly for a decade, I can easily say this trip was the most invigorating and inspiring I've ever taken - business or otherwise. A day has not gone by since returning that I have not thought about my time there. Not many people can travel to Kyiv these days from the US, so I thought I would share a few reflections on my visit from an on-the-ground perspective. 

First off, getting to Kyiv does not simply mean booking a flight to Kyiv. The airspace in Ukraine is closed to commercial aircraft, so you must fly to Poland and take a train from there. I flew into Warsaw where I met the European colleagues I was traveling with. We had time to spare before the train left in the early evening so we treated ourselves to a traditional Polish meal in a nearby neighborhood. Being a vegetarian meant I had to bypass the slices of pork fat, but second hand reviews were favorable.

The train to Kyiv left from Warsaw’s auxiliary train station Warszawa Wschodnia, a much smaller station than Centralna, the main station. There is no food service of any kind on the train to Kyiv, so we picked up food ahead of time at a small grocery store there. I was also yelled at by a bathroom attendant because I didn’t realize it was a paid bathroom and was halfway out the door without depositing some zlotys. Travelers beware.

I had read a few accounts about the train so I generally knew what to expect, but I had never ridden in a sleeper car before so it was all a new experience. The car turned out to be simple and relatively comfortable, reminiscent of what I imagine train travel to have been like in the 70's and 80's in Western Europe (and today on most American Amtrak trains, unfortunately.) 

We had a 3-person sleeper car, and all 3 beds, a little thinner than a traditional twin, folded down from one side of the wall. The bottom bunk was our communal bench. Leaving at 17:47 meant the sun was starting to go down, and as the train left the station to begin its 18-hour journey, many people stepped out of their rooms to open the windows in the hallway and grant us a lovely breeze. We quickly made it out of Warsaw and into the Polish countryside. It felt almost romantic.

As one might expect, crossing the border into Ukraine was arduous. First, train tracks in Ukraine are wider than standard railway tracks used in most of Europe. Ukraine uses a 1,520 mm railway gauge, while European railways generally use the 1,435 mm standard gauge, a historical legacy stemming from the Russian and Soviet empires. This meant the gauges needed to be changed on all our train cars before we could proceed into Ukraine. At 2am. Second, there were two passport checks, one by the Polish police, and once in Ukraine, by the Ukrainians. The difference being the Ukrainian police took our passports off the train with them to do their security checks. I felt very naked without my passport and laid in my bunk in the dark room catastrophizing about being left on the side of the tracks with no meaningful identification and a dying phone. Fortunately an hour later a police officer reappeared with our passports and we were on our way.

Arriving into Kyiv around noon the next day, we departed the train and were immediately met with air raid sirens. It was a beautiful day and no one seemed to pay any attention to the sirens going off around us while we anxiously scanned the skies for missiles and drones and discussed if we should be heading to a shelter.

While I can’t share much about the business of our stay in Kyiv, I can share a couple observations about what it felt like to be in the city.

When you’re only reading news articles, you’re largely ignorant to how life actually feels in a place. My expectations and anxieties of visiting a war zone it turned out, were not aligned with reality. First, Central Kyiv is beautiful and feels like other mid-size European cities. Wide thoroughfares, modern and Soviet-style architecture that has been re-purposed, hidden old brick streets, ornate churches, large sidewalk cafes, and fashion malls.

I’ve been asked often since returning if I felt like I was ever in danger. We did hear air raid sirens every night we were there, and a week before we arrived there had been drone strikes that killed several people in a Kyiv suburb. How to deal with these air raid sirens and phone alerts has clearly become a personal choice among the citizenry and visitors. One person I traveled with simply slept in the hotel’s shelter each night. I decided to stay in my room but kept an eye on my phone’s alert app for additional information. Every local I spoke to simply ignored them completely. But traveling to Kyiv and staying in the central part of the city is a far cry from being further east or even in Kyiv’s suburbs. Was I nervous traveling to a country at war? Yes. Was I ever really in danger? No, not really, and I would never want to appropriate others’ experiences who are truly living in harm’s way as citizens of Ukraine, the brave military and intelligence personnel actively defending the country and executing missions, or their families who have suffered unimaginable loss or anguish.

The most memorable part of the trip from a personal perspective, and the aspect that will haunt me for the rest of my life, was simply the experience of walking down a busy Kyiv street. I saw teenagers doing teenage things, I saw old people, I saw children and women of all ages, but I saw next to no one my own age. A man aged 25 to 60 was only present in the form of a police officer, a soldier on leave, or someone with a disability. This entire segment of the population are all part of the fight a few hundred miles away, have left the country, are in hiding, or are dead. An entire demographic has been fundamentally impacted by this war. The knock-on effects are barely fathomable. And for what?

Many have spoken of Ukraine’s need to constantly innovate on both the battlefield and covert intelligence operations as they face a superior armed foe with orders of magnitude more human and material resources and uneven support from the US and Europe. In fact I am writing this post days after a daring plan was executed to ship drones deep into the Russian heartland to attack its strategic air capabilities. Being there and participating in workshops and meetings meant being exposed to the culture that incubates ideas like these. The only simile I could come up with was from the times I spent in Y Combinator. It felt like I was working with a giant startup.

To be in Kyiv and walk its streets, eat in its restaurants, visit its churches, and witness its monuments to the dead meant that I was able to experience a pride, fellowship, and common loyalty that deeply moved me and is all too foreign in America these days. Perhaps this esprit de corps can only exist among a population pulled together from the experience of war. Nevertheless, l hope it can also continue to inspire those rooting for it from afar like I will. There is much to respect and admire.