Monday 27th July – Kiev

• Meet the group in Kiev in the morning
• Those continuing from the Transnistria Chernobyl tour (TBC) will meet new arrivals at our hotel in Kiev.
• As a group, we will meet a veteran of the recent Euromaidan revolution and begin a walking tour of Kiev to introduce you to this amazing city and see the sights were the revolution raged in 2014. The tour will also take in breathtaking churches, monasteries, monuments and dominating Soviet architecture.
• Stop for lunch in a Soviet-style canteen with great, hearty food on offer.
• Visit one of the deepest Metro stations in the world that doubled as a nuclear bunker for the masses in the Cold War.
• We will then head to one of Europe’s greatest war museums, the vast National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War which is topped with the gigantic Rodina Mat statue and boasting many awe-inspiring and colossal Soviet war memorials, tanks, aircraft and nuclear missiles. Inside the museum is a hive of rare WW2 relics and amazing displays and dioramas of critical WW2 events. If weather conditions allow, we will climb to the top of the Rodina Mat statue for a bird’s eye view over Kiev. There is also the chance to climb inside and explore the cockpit of the world’s only assault gunship, the feared Russian hind.
• Free time in the evening and then dinner at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant.
• Overnight in Kiev.

Tuesday 28th July – Kiev

• This day will see one of the highlights of the trip; tank driving!
• We grab breakfast at the hotel and this action-packed day will start fairly early.
• We will meet our driver before leaving Kiev for the day and cutting across the Ukrainian steppe. We will be heading for a military base at an undisclosed location where we will be briefed and familiarized with security and safety procedures. You will then meet the Ukrainian troops who will be accompanying us and the 15-ton war machine that we will be riding before taking turns driving. The adrenaline filled, off-road driving that follows will take us through the Ukrainian wilderness, through acres of scenic forests and steppe. You can take as many photos and as much video as you like.
• We will then try some traditional Ukrainian lunch and vodka with the troops in the wilderness.
• Another ride back to base along the highway to get some final excellent photos and video.
• Transfer back to Kiev and arriving back to the hotel in the evening where we will freshen up before heading out for dinner.

Wednesday 29th July – Kiev

• We grab breakfast and head out of Kiev into the countryside.
• The day will be spent exploring the lesser-seen part of the Stalin line surrounding Kiev from preserved to battle-scarred Red Army bunkers, tunnels, and hideouts. Our guide will provide some harrowing stories of the vicious fighting and brutal last stands that took place here during the Nazi invasion of Ukraine.
• Our final destination will be a bunker in the middle of a lake, which can be reached by boats we will hire.
• We will have some kebabs overlooking the lake and can cool off in the water afterward.
• Return to Kiev
• Overnight in Kiev.

Thursday 30th July – Dnipro

• We wake up early and grab breakfast
• Drive on the Kiev-Odessa Highway for approximately two hours.
• Possible visit to a rural shooting range owned by an eccentric local who sometimes allows tourists inside to fire a range of heavy weapons and machine guns.
• Our next stop is a secret Soviet missile attack base.
• Arrival to Museum where we will meet a manager of the museum, the ex-officer of the base for a briefing on the history of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile base of ICBM silo launcher in Pervomaisk in a pavillion with many exhibits.
• Head down a hidden passage through 150 meters long underground corridor. Take a lift 12 floors down to the bottom of the Unified Launch Control Center. (the lift can barely fit three people so with a big group may take some time.)Visit the rest area of the officers and climb one floor up to the control center, where the launching equipment with “THE BUTTON” which would have ended the world is located. You are free to push it and initiate the firing sequence, luckily, no rockets will be fired.
• See the guards’ bunkers, tanks, artillery, missile trains, silos, trucks and the infamous SS-18 “Satan” Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. Everything can be climbed on, and many can be entered, such as Russian army helicopters.
• We will then transfer to the frontline city of Dnipro. The Soviet Rocket City is formerly known as Dnipropetrovsk: It was closed by the KGB in 1959 and only reopened for visitors in the 1990s.  In the conflict zone of Eastern Ukraine and 250km from the rebel-held capital of Donetsk.
• Overnight in Dnipro.

Friday 31st July – Dnipro

• Breakfast at a traditional Ukrainian restaurant.
• Walking tour around Dnipro city taking in the Dnipro-arena (Site of EURO 2012), a monument in honour of the victory football cup during the USSR.
• Visit the rocket-park dedicated to the cities armament producing past, the wall of Celestial Hundred and a monument to victims of Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 and about the heroism of firefighters from Dnipro
• We’ll then head to embankment called “Naberezhnaya”, Monastery Island, Taras Shevchenko Monument, who had a  great contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture, then visit St.Nicolas Church and Waterfall “Porig Revuchiy” – The Roaring Rapid.
• We’ll see Taras Shevhenko’s Park, then Transfiguration Cathedral – the first building of Yekaterinoslav – city built in honor of Russian Empress  Catherine the Great.
• We will visit the Historical Museum, Eternal flame, Diorama of  “The battle for Dnepr,” then walk to The Monument of Eternal Glory
• Have lunch at Stara Taverna restaurant nearby The Monument of Eternal Glory
• Visit the Yekaterinoslavskiy boulevard and walk along Yavornitskogo avenue to the fountain of the Muse.
• Return to the hotel for some free time.
• We’ll enjoy dinner at Pazata Hata and later drinks at the famous “Walk of Lights” party street.
• Overnight in Dnipro city.

Saturday 1st August – Kiev

• We grab breakfast and check out of the hotel for the drive to Zaporizhia, a major city on the Dnieper River.
• We’ll spend the day exploring the heart of Cossack country as the city is home to Khortytsia Island, a former Cossack stronghold with the Khortytsia National Reserve and the open-air Museum of Zaporizhian Cossacks.
• We grab lunch before heading to the Regional Lore Museum which explores Cossack, Scythian and medieval history.
• If time permits we will see the Boguslayev Museum of Technology which has jet engines and motorbikes.
• We grab supplies for the drive back to Kiev.
• Overnight in Kiev.

Sunday 2nd August – Kiev

• After lunch, we will head to the former residence of Ukraine’s ousted the president, Viktor Yanukovich. There are few places on Earth like the $75 million residence Since fleeing the country, this luxurious site has been opened to the public and has become a must-see destination for locals and tourists alike. From the ostriches in his private zoo to the replica Spanish galleon, to the exquisite landscaping across the expansive 140 hectares of territory, you’ll see firsthand why Yanukovych was named by Transparency International as the world’s most corrupt politician in 2016.
• After exploring inside the opulent house, we enjoy a golf car ride around the 350 acres residence with stops to see main sights: Spanish galleon, golf courses, Putin’s guest house, retro cars collection, helipad.
• Return to Kiev for some free time.
• Farewell dinner and drinks.
• Overnight in Kiev.

Monday 3rd August 

• End of tour
• Continue on and make your way to Minsk joining us for our Belarus Summer Tour. Click here to learn more.

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