Khreshchatyk (Ukrainian: Хрещатик, pronounced [xreˈʃt͡ʃɑtɪk]) is the main street of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine.

[1] In 1770, the doctor and diarist John Lerche described the landscape: "At the end of the Pechersk suburb, there is a narrow road (Khreshchatytskaya) due to a deep gulley or valley; but it cannot be avoided, because it connects all three cities.

"[3] In Kievan Rus' times, the fortifications of the Upper Town existed across Old Kyiv Hill [uk] above the ravine.

These had been reduced to ruins by the early 19th century, when they were removed, leaving a square at the foot the hill at the modern Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

The first houses, built in 1797, were wooden, with the earliest recorded building being the late 18th-century mansion of a landowner called Golovinsky.

[5] The Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius met at the apartment of 19th-century Ukrainian historian Mykola Kostomarov on Khreshchatyk.

In 1904, the pavement was laid with granite cobbles,[8] having been first provided with a hard surface in 1888,[5] Revolutionary rallies and demonstrations took place on the street in 1901, 1902, 1905, and in June 1917.

[8] During World War II, almost every building on Khreshchatyk was laid with explosives by the retreating Red Army troops.

On 24 September 1941, five days after German troops had occupied the city,[12] radio-controlled explosions were set off from over 400 kilometres (250 mi) away.

This unprecedented method of warfare caused panic and brought heavy casualties among both the occupiers and city's remaining civilian population.

[citation needed] Under German occupation, the street was renamed Eichhornstrasse, after Hermann von Eichhorn, a field marshal and the supreme commander of Army Group Kyiv and simultaneously military governor of Ukraine during the previous German occupation, who in 1918 had been assassinated on Khreshchatyk by the social revolutionary Boris Donskoy.

In 1989, part of the Kyiv Central Post Office building collapsed [uk] during heavy rain, killing a dozen people and injuring others.

[15] On 24 July 1990, the first ceremonial raising of the Ukrainian national flag took place on Khreshchatyk, at the Kyiv City Council building.

[23] It was reported that Russian forces were expecting to parade down Khreshchatyk within three days of the start of the invasion, and that some soldiers had been issued ceremonial uniforms for that purpose.

[27] Points of interest include the 19th-century Besarabsky indoor Market, the shops, offices and PinchukArtCentre in the Besarabsky Quarter, the Metrohrad underground shopping centre, TSUM Kyiv, Kyiv Passage (a small narrow commercial and residential street), and the City Council building.