Buses & Trolleybuses

With only 3 metro lines, if you need to access any of the more suburban areas you need to take road transport. In order of speed, your choices are:

• Marshrutkas - Very fast, but not comfortable.
• Trams - Quick, but only a few routes
• Buses - Free WiFi and frequent.
• Trolleybuses - Quiet, but limited to certain routes and can't overtake.

While not as quick as Marshrutkas, buses and trolleybuses are the reliable and staple choice of many locals.

How to Use

Plan your route on Google Maps to find your closest bus stop and go and wait. Unlike in other countries, you don't need to put your hand out to stop the bus or press a button to tell the driver you want to get off, the buses simply stop at every stop.

The price of a single trip on a bus is 30 UAH regardless of the length of the trip. It went up from 8 UAH on 15 July 2026, so anything you read quoting the old fare is out of date.

When you get on the bus you have a few choices of payment:

• Cash - Conductors and paper tickets went in 2021, so there's nobody on board to take your money. If cash is all you've got, buy a QR ticket from a self-service terminal before you get on.
• Kyiv Smart Card - Simply tap your card on the orange validator and sit down.
• Contactless bank card/Google Pay/Apple Pay - Tap it on the validator, the same as on the metro. It works on every city bus and trolleybus, but only pays for one person, so use a smart card or QR tickets for a group.
• QR ticket - Buy one in the Kyiv Digital (Київ Цифровий) app before you get on and scan it on the validator. If you're changing onto the metro or a tram, the 60 UAH 90-minute transfer ticket covers the lot, but at the price of two singles it only pays off on three or more rides.

EasyWay - Where's the bus?

Officially each route has a timetable, but it's rare they are taken seriously. Bus drivers seem to ignore these and just go at semi-regular intervals. Most routes are often running every 10 to 15 minutes, but on some longer routes they can be only once an hour.

The best and easiest way to check if your bus will come (and when) is to use the EasyWay application either online, Android App or iPhone App. From this you can see all buses on a route and their location (they all have GPS). The other way to use the application is to select your bus stop and it'll show live times of all routes that stop there and when the next bus will come (look out for the live times in green). Google Maps uses the same data source, but EasyWay gives you more data and tells you exactly where your bus is.

Don't take these times as gospel though as buses can often disappear mid-route as they go to a depot!