The correct pronunciation and spelling of Kyiv

If you have been confused by the pronunciation and spelling of Kyiv during media coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you're not alone.

If you thought it was pronounced kee-EV or key-EV, and spelled Kiev, that's because it was for many years. But this is the Russian spelling and pronunciation (Ukraine was of course a Soviet Russian possession for most of the 20th century). Ukrainians, however, spell it Kyiv (or Київ in Cyrillic, but note that Ukrainian Cyrillic is slightly different from Russian Cyrillic!), and pronounce it more like KEE-ev, or KEY-uv (there are several examples of native pronunciation on Forvo). News-readers are being told that the pronunciation should be KEE-eev, but a one-syllable KEEV is probably fine, just avoid the Russian key-EV.

So, this is not quite the same as insisting that Paris always be pronounced par-EE in English - some famous places have acquired, rightly or wrongly -  an English pronunciation over time. Think of it more as a politically-correct pronunciation.