Basically, Ukraine or Russia? ( In terms of street safety, people, quality of life )
My friends who have traveled to Moscow/St. Petersburg did say it could be quite intimidating and sometimes scary actually, and the people in Ukraine were more friendly becoming more progressive.
I wanted to know your opinion, thank you :)
I have lived and worked in Russia for the past five years and it is fantastic. The Russian people are great and I have been accepted and treated well. Moscow is a big city, fine to live in, but crowded at times, traffic is very bad, and it can be expensive though the Ruble has been in a nose dive this year. Russia is only intimidating if you let it be. If / when you visit, I assure you that whatever preconceived notions you have about it will generally not be correct. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city and not bad also. With the current situation, I would not recommend going to the Ukraine. I visited Donetsk two years ago and it was great, but things have changed. Kiev is still OK, but there is a lot of uncertainty, and mistrust between the two factions.
Moscow isn't scary at all. It's just as safe as any other european large city. And people in Moscow are more open to foreigners than in the rest of Russia. Petersburg is certainly a much more beautiful city than Moscow though.
Ukraine doesn't seem to be the best place on earth to improve your Russian since many people there just refuse to speak it, especialy in Lviv.
Kiev is full of protests and not safe and has a lot of discontent with their government. You should go to Russia. The standard of living is better and the services are functioning, and the history is important. Besides, how can you go to a country like Ukraine where the farce of a government is killing thousands of their own citizens.
Now is not the best time to study Russian language in Ukraine. Better in Russia.
Kiev is awesome and all. It's much older than Moscow and it's Russia's and Ukraine's birthplace. But due to current events, it's better to go to Moscow.
I have been to all these lovely places. If I had a choice I think I would choose St-Petersbourg: more relaxed than Moscow...or Kiev these days.
That's like asking if you should go to the US or Mexico. Ukraine being Mexico. There's an obvious choice, in terms of quality of life and things like that, but one might have one's own reasons for choosing the other. Frankly with the way you're ready to believe all the scary things about Russia and endanger yourself already by believing all the nice things about Ukraine, forgive me for thinking we could do without folks like you here in Russia. To each their own.
Lviv is one of the most beautiful city in Europe, but you'll have to learn ukrainian. Young people never learned russian and older people don't like to admit they understand it.
If you speak Russian in Kiev or Lviv, most people are going to respond to you in Ukrainian which will not help your Russian. Especially in Lviv which is becoming more and more anti-Russian
