[1] The Chronicle covers Ukraine's relationship with the Principality of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the impact of the Turks and Tatars, and the origin of the Cossacks.

[2] The original chronicle has not survived, but three copies of it have been preserved:[3] The Hustyn Chronicle begins with a few references to Bible stories, including the Genesis flood narrative and the Tower of Babel; thereafter, the legendary founding of Kyiv by Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv and Lybid' is narrated.

[4] This is followed by the history of Kievan Rus' by the reigns of princes, with special attention to Volyn' and Podolia.

[8] Soviet historian Anatoliy Yershov (1930) concluded that Zacharias Kopystensky (died 1627), the author of the Palinodiia, had probably also written the Hustyn Chronicle.

[8][2][11] But American historian George Perfecky (1991) disagreed, because the Palinodiia and the Hustyn Chronicle present very different accounts of the Christianization of Kievan Rus', and therefore were probably not written by the same author.