Wiping a teardrop from his face, 91-year-old Italian Luigi Pedutto unveiled a monument on May 7 depicting him tenderly hugging a Ukrainian woman.

Bicycle enthusiasts are still way ahead of Kyiv’s lacking infrastructure with few centrally located paths and bike lanes on the capital’s chaotic streets.

Ukraine’s famed May break will be particularly impressive this year, with four days off work – May 1, 2, 6 and 9. With the right job or a benevolent boss, a clever worker can parlay this into 12 paid days off, including weekends. It’s a good way to start the month.

 Perhaps the most festive and celebrated month on Ukraine’s calendar is May. 

The merger of business and academia – a widely used model at the world's top research institutions – has finally come to Ukraine. 

The piles of garbage in many city parks are a definite turnoff for people trying to enjoy a nice picnic or simply the warm weather. 

While most Kyiv cafes offer the same range of services, one unique place combines European cuisine, a shop selling works by Ukrainian designers and an education center housing lectures, master classes and movie screenings.

 A boy looks at a car during the opening of the Retro & Exotica Motor Show in Kyiv on April 12.

More than 20 inches of snow dropped on Kyiv in a three-day period starting March 22, the most snow this late in spring since the city began keeping records in 1889.

 Here’s something exotic and tropical for snowy Kyiv: 

About Zoya Shu  & how she got these pictures

Mystetsky Arsenal showed a different side of Maslyana.

Elephant Khorase is young, just 8 years old. He doesn’t like winter. Even though his winter home in Kyiv Zoo is newly repaired and warm, it is still a bit too small for him and he might be missing his rhinoceros friend. And he still doesn’t have a sponsor. 

Ukrainians have embraced the traditions of St. Patrick’s Day holiday, which include wearing green and drinking beer.

There are seven bridges in Kyiv spanning the Dnipro River. But the very first stationary bridge that once did the job alone is no longer there.

As myth has it, Saint Patrick originally gained fame for symbollically driving the snakes from Ireland, but his Saint’s Day is now a celebration of everything Irish, especially green beer. 

It’s easy to notice the arrival of spring in a gray, dirty megalopolis. Just keep an eye out for the babushkas who congregate near underpasses and metro stations and hawk the first forest flowers out of baskets. Called snowdrops, these tender, translucent florets are a popular gift for Women’s Day. The problem is, they are an endangered species, and their sale is prohibited by law. 

Some people now carry dozens of plastic discount and club cards that bulge in their wallets, an increasingly inconvenient way to save money. 

Even dry government statistics show the passion for gift-giving that comes with Valentine’s Day and Women’s Day, the latter celebrated on March 8. The Ministry of Taxes and Duties reported record-breaking imports of perfumes in January and February of this year. 

Whether you celebrate Women’s Day or not, the holiday comes on March 8 every year, and with it – for many – the agony of gift buying. That is, if you have already moved past the agony of guessing whether the woman in question celebrates the holiday that was very popular in the Soviet days.

This year Kyiv Post has decided to assist in the search for great presents. However, we made it our task to pick out five things that are so cool that it could be received with gratitude on any day and any occasion.