The first idea for an underground railway appeared in 1884. The project, which was given for analysis to the city council by the director of the Southwestern railways, Dmytro Andrievskiy, planned to create tunnels from Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station. The tunnel was expected to start near Poshtova square and finish near Bessarabka. A new railway station was to be built there, while the old railway station was to be converted into a freight railway station. The project was long discussed, but finally turned down by the city council.[1]

The story of a rapid transit system in Kyiv begins in September 1916 when businessmen of the Russo-American trading corporation attempted to collect funds to sponsor construction of a metro in Kyiv, which previously had been a pioneering city for Imperial Russian rapid transit, opening the first Russian tram system. As a reason to construct it, the trading corporation wrote:

The development has been lately going in fast pace, not only when talking about population growth, but as well while talking about the development of the trade and industry businesses. The specifics of Kyiv, namely: the distance between the residential districts from the central business district, an insane price of the apartments in the centre and its neighbourhoods, the elongation and hilly position of the city, a predominantly commercial habit of its inhabitants - all those factors make the question of cheap, fast and safe transportation arise. The Kyiv city tram can't answer any of the issues. The tram's drawbacks are widely known, and the reasons they appear is that, in the given conditions, the tram network development is not able to keep pace with the fast-growing city. An increase in rolling stock on the main lines may cause a slowdown in the street movement, while an increase of speed threatens the safety of people. The only way out of the situation is the transfer from on-ground trams to underground trams, starting from the main streets.

Despite the arguments, the project, again, was not accepted in the city council.

After the downfall of the Tsarist government Hetman Skoropadsky was also much interested in building the system somewhere near Zvirynets', where the government centre was planned to be built. Hetman argued:

 

The article in "Kievlyanin" newspaper (24 Sep 1916 O.S.) proposing a project of the Kyiv Underground

[...] [The engineers] have an idea to construct trams, but not the ones [that ride] now, - those overground, and [those] in tunnels that are called "metropoliten" [underground]. The soil of Zvirynets' and Kiev as a whole, where the underground is to be built, is the best for the kind of construction. Under these circumstances, the underground may be even better placed than [the one] in Paris. Kyiv is situated on the hills and ravines, [so] the underground, appearing from the hill into the ravine, then again passing through the mountain, will transfer everyone and everything from Bessarabka [uk] to Demiivka, from Zvirynets' to Lukyanivka, from Naberezna [ave.] or Prorizna [str.] to Zadniprovski Slobidky

However, after the downfall of the Hetmanate in the autumn of 1918 and the change of the Ukrainian government towards the Directorate the project lost its support, and, in 1919–1920, during the Russian Civil War (in which Ukraine was involved), the project was shelved for good.

Following the Bolsheviks' victory in the Civil War, Kyiv became only a provincial city, and no large-scale proposals to improve the city were drawn.

In 1934, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv. On July 9, 1936, the Presidium of the Kyiv City Council assessed the diploma project by Papazov (Papazian), an Armenian graduate of the Moscow University of Transport Engineering, called, "The Project of the Kyiv Metro." The meeting minutes stated that, "the author successfully resolved one of the problems of reconstruction of the city of Kyiv and establishment of intra-city transportation and also answered various practical questions pertaining to the Metro plan (the routes of the underground, the position of stations)." The engineer Papazov (Papazian) received a bonus of 1,000 roubles for this project from the City of Kyiv.[1] Nobody knows, however, if his proposals were taken into account of the plan. A few days before, on July 5, the Kyiv "Bil'shovyk" newspaper published an article which featured a project of an underground, prepared by the engineers from the Transport Devices Institute in the Ukraine's Soviet Socialist Republic's Academy of Sciences. The project promised to drill three lines of a subway ca. 50 km long.

Rumours started spreading that the construction of the Metro would kick off soon. The city council denied it amid letters from the specialists in the drilling and mining sectors offering their services, at first. In 1938, however, the officials started preparatory work, which stopped abruptly with the advent of war, in 1941.[2]

Kyiv was terribly destroyed during World War II, so a massive reconstruction process was ordered in the third largest city of the USSR. This time, the Metro was taken into account.

Work continued in 1944, after Kyiv's liberation. On 5 August 1944 a resolution from the Soviet Union's Government was proclaimed. The resolution planned the underground construction, thus the government ordered the appropriate organisations to continue preparatory works, create the technical project and the estimated price of the project so as to give the government the whole documentation and to start government debates already in Q4 1944, to introduce this on the task list. For this purpose, the USSR's National Commissariat of Finances allocated 1 million Rbls from the Reserve Fund of the USSR's government to continue works.[3] On 22 February 1945, another resolution was proclaimed, which definitely ordered the underground to be constructed.[citation needed]

To let the government know where the underground construction was most suitable, experts from the Kyiv office of "Metrogiprotrans" analysed the flow of passengers in the streets of Kyiv, not only in the centre, but as well on the outskirts. The analysis revealed that the three suitable directions to construct the underground: Sviatoshyn–Brovary, Kurenivka–Demiyivka and Syrets –Pechersk, out of which the former two were chosen to be built in the plan. It was decided that the first round of underground openings on the former two directions, 30.4 km in length, would have to be constructed by 1950.

The plan, however, did not come into life. The final preparations were conducted in 1949. Then, according to the decision of the Ministry of Communication, "Kyivmetrobud" enterprise was created on 14 April. Only then did the underground construction begin.

Construction finally kicked off in August 1949.[1] The initial plan had seven stations and the project designs competition for the stations was announced in 1952. The commission for the competition wanted that the style be Stalinist, i.e. richly decorated stations, with plenty of Communist symbols and as well national (Ukrainian) motifs for all seven stations. However, the competition was cancelled—partly due to the cancellation of the two westernmost stations and partly due to Khrushchev Thaw, which made the Stalinist style inappropriate.

Tunnel drilling met with frequent difficulties that were not mentioned in the project, for example: a specific terrain of drilling and the underground water sources which were not expected. For these reasons, the construction fell severely behind schedule. The first connection between separate tunnels was made between "Dnipro" and "Arsenalna" in December 1951, while the last were created between the "Vokzalna" and "Universytet" stations, in May 1959.[3]

Various difficulties arose at the construction of the underground. For example, Arsenalna station was constantly flooded by underground waters, which was one of the reasons behind its depth and its design, which was difficult to execute.[4] Moreover, works came to a standstill in 1954 when all funding which had been planned to spend on underground construction, was in fact allocated to treat the previously unused lands fit for agriculture.[5] In spite of it, works progressed.

 

Earlier stations are ornately decorated and many have impressive vestibules, such as this at Vokzalna station.

At the beginning of 1958, a competition for the best design of stations was announced, therefore, a commission analysing the works was created out of activists, experts from engineering and architecture of both Ukrainian SSR and USSR, sculptors, artists, writers and heads of Glavtunelstroy, Metrogiprotrans and Kyivmetrobud. In July, an exhibition of 80 works was organised. Five of the best works were used for creating the design of the first five stations of the Kyiv underground: "Vokzalna", "Universytet", "Khreshchatyk", "Arsenalna" and "Dnipro".[3]

For the project to come into life, 660,400 m3 (23,321,805.9 cu ft) of concrete (reinforced as well as traditional) were poured, additional 7,300 m2 (78,576.5 sq ft) of granite and marble were used to decorate the stations.[3]

On 22 October 1960, trains delivered, the motorman of the Moscow underground, Alexey Semagin and Ivan Vynogradov, former train operator from Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi, the central railway station, made a test run.[6] The former was driving, while the latter was Semagin's assistant.

At last, on the anniversary of the October Revolution, on 6 November 1960, the five-station, 5.24 km Vokzalna–Dnipro portion of the east–west line today known as the Sviatoshynsko-Brovarska Line, was opened.[7] That day, the motormen changed their places, thus Ivan Vynogragov is now deemed as the first motorman of the Kyiv's underground.[8][9]

The underground was not given to the public the same day the line was declared opened. During the first week, special passes had to be shown to ride the newly opened section. Public service only started on 13 November that year.[10]

Immediately after the underground's opening, a problem with the train depot arose. It was at first solved by creating a temporary depot next to "Dnipro" station, where Kyivmetrobud had its headquarters at the time. It contained some space so that two trains could be repaired, the repair room itself and the headquarters. There were some warehouses constructed as well, so that necessary items could be substituted if needed. Unfortunately, the depot was not connected to the main underground line, so that it was not able to execute its functions properly. To move trains to the depot, an overhead crane was used.[11]

At the time, the line was served by type Д underground trains (produced by Metrowagonmash). The logistics problem appeared at the time, since there was no connection between the underground and the railway. In order to deliver them to the system, trains from Mytishchi arrived at Darnytsia railway station, to be then placed on a special carriage. The carriage was then transported by trams to the temporary depot (via the now non-existing tram line along Dnieper), where the railway turntable, after being set so that the tracks of the turntable were parallel with those on the station, lifted them there. Since the procedure was uncomfortable and tedious to do, the majority of trains rested overnight in the tunnels and arrived into the depot only to be checked for repairs and repaired.[12] The creation of such a depot was a temporary event, not only because of the difficulties connected with it, but as well since it was the only place where it could have been placed (there was no possibility to construct a permanent on-ground depot as the stations were deep underground), while a creation of an underground depot was costly and could not have guaranteed a connection with the railway system, unless another tunnel was created to supply the trains.

At the time, the underground was under the jurisdiction of the USSR's Ministry of Communication and not of Kyiv's city council. Moreover, there were no turnstiles, so, as it is today practised on Kyiv's buses, the tickets were shown to the inspector.[10]

Moreover, the motormen, until 1962, were mostly from Moscow, as there was no institution that provided appropriate education in Ukraine. There were some railway engineers employed at first from Kyiv, such as one that opened the underground, even though they had to qualify for motormen in Moscow.

The second section's construction of the (as then) the only line in Kyiv started in 1960 at latest, and finished on 5 November 1963, with the opening of a 3.4 km section of the underground, with two stations: "Politekhnichnyi Instytut" and "Zavod Bilshovyk" (now "Shuliavska" station). A year later, new type E underground trains were introduced.

 

View of the left bank surface extension of the metro's Line 1.

Later on, the line crossed the Dnieper river in 1965 across newly constructed Metro and Rusanivskyi bridges and went east to the large residential areas being built on the left bank of the river. As the "Dnipro" station, "Hidropark", "Livoberezhna" and "Darnytsia" stations all were on-ground. Additionally, to resolve the question of a temporary depot, a permanent one, "Darnytsia" with the access to railway, namely, to Kyiv-Dniprovskyi railway station, was built between "Livoberezhna" and "Darnytsia". Thanks to the depot, new trains could be easily transported immediately into the depot, which, having a connection with the metro line, could now easily host trains.

Besides, a few developments were made on the old stations. Khreshchatyk station was opened with one exit only, while the second way out was built from summer 1960 until 4 September 1965,[13] when it was opened. While being modernised, the station became longer by 40 metres.[14] The third and last exit from Khreshchatyk was finished in May 1970.[15]

Further extension of the line to the east was made in 1968, when "Komsomolska" station was opened (now "Chenihivska" station) with another facility where the trains could be mended.

When it revealed that the Leningrad's Metro type E underground trains were not suitable for the platform screen doors stations that were then massively built at the time, they were delivered to Kyiv in 1969, while the older type Д underground trains, which did not feature any problems with similar stations, were transported to Leningrad.[10]

 

A type E-zh train on the metro's Line 1.

The following year, all the trains were added an additional carriage, so that each train could then carry four wagons at once, with the fifth added two years later. From 1972, the number of carriages that each train rides with remains constant up to now (as of 4 July 2017).[12]

On 5 November 1971, Kyiv's then westernmost neighbourhoods were connected to the underground. Three stations: "Zhovtneva" (now "Beresteiska"), "Nyvky" and "Sviatoshyno" (now with "o" removed) were then opened to public. Thus, the underground was extended to 14 stations and 18.2 km.

On 23 August 1972, the billionth passenger of the Kyiv underground entered the "Arsenalna" station. The worker of the "Arsenal" factory was given a yearly ticket in the underground as a present on such an occasion.

Finally, in 1973–1974, another modernization of the underground was made, the third one in the rolling stock. New trains from Leningrad's train building facility were delivered to Kyiv, namely the type Eм underground trains.[10]

Further extensions on this line which will be mentioned later, appeared in 1978 ("Pionerska" station, now "Lisova") and 2003 ("Zhytomyrska" and "Akademmistechko").

Construction of the second line began in 1971. The line became known as "Kurenivsko-Chervonoarmiyska" however the name did not completely correspond to the actual route, as it does not pass via Kurenivka. In mid-1960, when plans about the line were made, the construction was expected to go towards Kurenivka and Priorka, with "Zavodska" station instead of today's "Tarasa Shevchenka" one "Petropavlivska" station at near Kurenivskyi park and "Shevhenka Square" under the square.[16] However, as the decision to create the Obolon residential district was made,[17] the first plans were changed.[18]

The new line was openly constructed and the stations were not constructed deep in the ground. The consequences were grave for Podil because historical buildings were demolished. On the other hand, archaeologists discovered a ca. 600–700 m2 (6,500–7,500 sq ft) house from Kyivs'ka Rus' times under the Red Square (now Kontraktova Square). The discovery helped historians know the life of Podil inhabitants in the Middle Ages to a much more profound scale.[19] The archaeological research was one of the reasons the underground construction was suspended, which is why a small 2.32 km (1.44 mi) stretch was opened only on 17 December 1976. It contained three stations: "Kalinina Square" (the station's name changed on 17 Oct 1977[20] because of the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution upcoming to "October Revolution Square" ("Ploshcha Zhovtnevoi Revolutsii"), now "Maidan Nezalezhnosti"), "Poshtova Ploshcha" and "Chervona Ploshcha", with the repairing facility near the last of those mentioned and the transfer corridor to the older line, separate for trains and for passengers,[20] which allowed the exchange of rolling stock, and, more importantly, which created the access for trains on the new line to "Darnytsia" depot, until a new one appeared in 1988.

 

Heroiv Dnipra station, built as part of the second line.

Simultaneously, an extension on the older line was made eastwards. In 1978, "Pionerska" station was opened, which might have been the next step towards the realization of Stalin times projects (the line was planned to be extended to Brovary, the Satellite town of Kyiv). Nevertheless, works on that line came to a halt, and, as of 4 July 2017, there were no plans yet to extend the line eastwards beyond "Lisova" station,[21] so the main work on line construction was shifted to the line M2.

What became known as the Kurenivsko-Chervonoarmiyska line (today the Obolonsko–Teremkivska line) continued expanding. On 19 December 1980 three new stations—"Tarasa Shevchenka", "Petrivka" (now "Pochaina") and "Prospekt Korniychuka" (now "Obolon")—were opened in the northern part of the line. After another two years, "Minska" and "Heroiv Dnipra" stations were added to the second line, on the 55th anniversary of the October Revolution. Therefore, the then largest residential district of Kyiv was connected to the rapid transit network.

Building processes did not stop at the southern end of the line: on 19 December 1981,[22][23] "Ploshcha Lva Tolstoho" and "Respublikanskyi stadion" (now "Olimpiiska" station) were given to use, with "Chervonoarmiiska" (now "Palats "Ukrayina"" station) and "Dzerzhynska" (now "Lybidska" station) following suit on 30 December 1984. Construction then started to the south-west of the newly opened terminus, but shortly afterwards interrupted by the accident, when the workers were drilling through the difficult terrain under the Lybid river. For that reason, any further works continued only 21 years later, in summer 2005.[10]

 

This is the so-called "long" corridor on the transfer between lines M1 and M2, opened in late 1986

While the construction of the M2 underground line was at its apogee, in 1980, new rolling stock from Metrowagonmash (81-717/714) started its usage.[10]

In 1985, a new train repair plant was built, first called ОМ-2. Moreover, after it appeared that the corridor between "October Revolution Square" and "Khreshchatyk" was not able to cope with the stream of passengers, a second corridor was built, called informally "long" corridor, and opened on 3 December 1986.[24] The same year, a disambiguation to the Darnytsia depot was made (3 tracks are made, of which 2 are for passenger traffic, while the third is supposed to let the trains exit the depot.

On 30 December 1987, the second (eastern) exit from the "Hidropark" station was erected, opened only in summer.[25]

Finally, on 19 March 1988, a new depot (called "Obolon"), serving line M2, was created.[20]

 

The eastern exit façade of Hidropark station, created in 1987

 

Zoloti Vorota station incorporates a very distinctive Ukrainian theme in its design.

 

The aluminium construction of Pivdennyi bridge, can be seen on the bottom left.

The first event connected with the third line construction was, in fact, the creation of a new tube on the line M1 between "Vokzalna" and "Khreshchatyk" stations. In the middle of it, a new station, "Leninska", was to arise, specially designed as a transfer hub to the future line M3. When the new tunnel was already constructed, and the only thing to do was to connect the new tunnel to the rest of the line, the line was cut into three parts: from 31 March to 1 October 1987, trains rode from "Sviatoshyno" to "Vokzalna" and from "Khreshchatyk" to "Pionerska" stations as usual, while, in the old tunnel, two shuttle trains were carrying passengers from "Vokzalna" to "Universytet" stations. The tunnel between "Khreshchatyk" and "Universytet" was closed. In order to cope with passengers, additional temporary lines of buses and trolleybuses were created.[26] The station itself was inaugurated on the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution, on 6 November 1987.[26]

The older tunnels, over 300 m each, partially cut by the ceiling of the "Zoloti Vorota" station, still exist and are now accessible only for underground staff in the case when the tunnel is taken care of.

The third line's construction (called Syretsko-Pecherska Line, the northwest–southeast axis) started in 1981, but finished only on 31 December 1989, when a 2.1 km segment, featuring three stations ("Zoloti vorota", "Palats sportu" and "Mechnikova" (now "Klovska")), the first two being the transfer hubs to other lines, while a technical tunnel between lines M2 and M3 started from the latter. This connection allowed the trains from line M3 to use the "Obolon" depot, until the line does not get its own. It was not a full opening, however, because, until 30 April 1990, the exit from "Zoloti vorota" station was only possible via "Leninska" station. The exit from the then northern terminus onto Volodymyrska street was only opened on 1 May 1990.[20]

A total of 31 stations and 34.6 km of passenger tunnels were constructed during the first 31 years of the subway system in the Soviet Union.

Even though Ukraine met severe economical problems at the dawn of independence, the momentum of subway construction was not at all lost: on 30 December 1991, "Druzhby narodiv" and "Vydubychi" stations were opened. "Pecherska" station was not opened then, but six years later, on 27 December 1997, since its construction had to be frozen due to hydrotechnical problems.[27] In that way, the line reached Dnieper, which it crossed exactly a year later via the Southern Bridge, with the creation of "Slavutych" and "Osokorky" stations. Initially, the metro bridge (not to be mistaken with Metro Bridge to the north) was intended to be covered by an aluminium construction, which was open from the sides, but it revealed it was ineffective against snow and rain protection.[10]

While the construction of the bridge segment was in progress, "Telychka" station was as well under construction, but, as it was built in a heavily industrialised area, where factories started to close, the construction site was abandoned. What remains of it now is a platform and a ventilation shaft, so the station can be used in emergency cases (e.g. fire or train's breakdown).[28]

Two years later (on 28 December 1994), the line was further extended to the east, when two stations, "Pozniaky" and "Kharkivska" were revealed to public. The former is special in a way that it is the first distinctly three-floor underground station in Kyiv, with the lower one being used by the underground, while the middle and the top ones by small market stalls. The technique will enable Pozniaky to easily become a transfer hub, when the Livoberezhna line is built, by removing the stalls in favour of passengers transferring to/from the planned line M5.[29] The opening was crucial for the rapidly developing Poznyaky and Kharkivskyi residential districts.

In mid late 1990s construction began on expansion to the older Syrets' district in the northwest direction with the first extension made on 30 December 1996. Then, "Lukyanivska" station became the terminus of the line. "Lvivska brama" station, between "Zoloti vorota" and "Lukyanivska", was also built, although the works came to a halt in 1997 after it came out that it was not feasible, there was no money and that there was no agreement upon how the L'vivska square should be reconstructed.[30]

On 30 March 2000, the next station on the line, "Dorohozhychi" was opened, "Hertsena" station was planned,[31] situated between "Lukyanivska" and "Dorohozhychi" and some say some initial stages of construction started, in fact,[32] however, further building was abandoned. Neither the current official scheme (see below) nor the earlier one do not indicate the station altogether.

Four years later, on 14 October 2004, the green line was further extended to the north-west, finishing at "Syrets'", which is the current terminus of the line.

At the same time, works were done on the southeastern stretch of the line, with "Boryspilska" station opened on 23 August 2005,[33] and "Vyrlytsia" on 7 March 2006. At first, what was to become "Vyrlytsia" was an emergency exit, and the station was not planned to be built, but the City Council later decided, in November 2005, to convert the exit into a full station, which is the reason why this station has side platforms.

Later on, on 23 August 2007, the third and newest depot in the Kyiv underground - Kharkivske depot, was opened.

The last station on the green line was as well under construction - "Chervonyi Khutir", from September 2005, but it could have been never opened to public, as, in April 2007, Leonid Chernovetskyi, then Mayor of Kyiv, fearing the station will have a low ridership, claimed the station will be subject to conservation, as "animals do not ride in the underground" (he meant that the station was situated literally in the forest, with not many buildings nearby, so there were no people to use the station).[34] Nevertheless, the works continued, and, after a few months' delay,[34] the station opened on 23 May 2008, to the Kyiv Day celebration.[35] It was most probably done due to the Mayor elections upcoming on 25 May 2008. However, this station still has the lowest ridership in the Kyiv Metro.[36] That was the last opening of line 3.

Until the 2000s, the line finished at "Sviatoshyn" (renamed in 1993 from "Sviatoshyno") at the western end. However, since 1971, new apartments, mostly in Bilychi and western Sviatoshyn, emerged, which created a need for an extension of the line to the housing facilities.

Construction of the 3.3 km (2.1 mi) last section of today's line M1 started in fall 2000. Two stations were built: "Zhytomyrska" and "Akademmistechko", with delays, however, due to irregular financing. For the purpose of construction, Peremohy avenue was partially closed from 14 January 2001 to 25 December 2002 (with periods of full blocking of this communication artery), because the tunnels were built beneath.[10][37] Finally, the last extension of line M1 was opened on 24 May 2003.[38]

 

Timelapse of Kyiv Metro construction (in Ukrainian)

Works on the construction of the southwestern segment of line M2 started in summer 2005, 21 years after the Lybid' river accident. Difficult terrain made the workers fall behind the schedule, partly because of accidents there (such as one in January 2006 on "Demiivska" station construction[39]). This station, as "Holosiivska" and "Vasylkivska", were opened on 15 December 2010.

The 50th station, "Vystavkovyi tsentr", was unveiled a year later, on 27 December 2011.[40] "Ipodrom" followed suit on 25 October 2012. Initially, "Ipodrom" was planned to be opened together with "Teremky" station in November 2012,[41] but, with the lack of financing and lagging behind the schedule, only "Ipodrom" was opened by then (ahead of schedule, partly thanks to funds reallocation, and partly because of the 2012 parliamentary elections due for 28 October),[42] while the "Ipodrom"-"Teremky" section would wait for 2013 underground construction funds. As there was no turnaround option for trains there, a shuttle train was driving between "Vystavkovyi tsentr" and "Ipodrom" stations, until "Teremky" station was opened on 6 November 2013, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kyiv liberation.[43] This, as of 2019, is the last extension or opening of any underground-connected facility (not taking into account the opening of the second exit from Osokorky station, which was built together with station, but opened only in 2014).

In the 1990s, the Kyiv Metro authority was mostly concerned with new underground building, rather than old infrastructure modernisation. This changed in March 2001, when an experimental modification of 81-717/714 trains, the Slavutych 81-553.1/554.1/555.1 wagon, was launched from Obolon depot. It included an increased number of electronical devices and induction motors (instead of synchronical ones in earlier series). The train model, however, was not released into mass production, so the test train remained the only one from its series.[44] The experimental 81-553.1 train is still operated on the Obolonsko–Teremkivska line between 7-10 a.m. on weekdays.

The modification of 81-717/714 (81-717.5М/714.5М) trains arrived three years later to the "Darnytsia" depot.

 

A new generation (81-7021) Kyiv metro train being prepared for use in its depot.

Another modification of the 81-717/714 series, 81-7021–7022, made by Kryukiv wagon-manufacturing plant were first unveiled to then President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, while opening the "Boryspilska" station.[45] Five months later, a sample was sent to Darnytsia depot for trials, where an error was detected. To accept the first underground train made in Ukraine in the Kyiv Metro, further tests were conducted from 17 June 2006 in the "Obolon" depot. Finally, in July 2008, the trains were accepted by the governmental commission and were given a special license allowing them to be mass-produced. (accordance with Ukrainian technical standards).[45] They started carrying passengers in 2009. 81-7021–7022 are supposed to substitute the older 81-717/714 trains, but, as of 5 July 2017, there is only one train of such a model.[46]

The next modified trains, 81-540.2К/81-714.5М, made by "Wagonmash" (St. Peterburg) and Metrowagonmash, are another modification of 81-717/714, arrived in 2010,[47] with additional trains set on rail in 2013.[48]

Finally, in 2014–2016, new trains, 81-7080 model, were transported from KVBZ to the Kyiv underground, which are now actively used on line M1.

In October 2005, new escalators were installed on "Lisova" and "Syrets" stations, as a movement for modernisation in the former case, and, in the latter, as part of a pylon station's equipment.[49]

The following year, a modernisation of "Darnytsia" station was made, with the second exit towards Popudrenka street built.[20]

In March–May 2017, a ₴24.84M ($915.9K) refurbishment of "Livoberezhna" station was made due to the second Eurovision session in Kyiv.[50]

 

Residents sheltering in the metro during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Metro was built in the wake of World War 2.[51] During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the metro stations doubled as bomb shelters, as residents took shelter from Russian bombs.[52] Like other former Soviet metro systems, the Kyiv metro was designed with this purpose in mind, and 47 of the city's 52 stations were designated for this purpose.[53] During the invasion, on February 24, regular service on the metro was suspended.[54] A reduced schedule was adopted with limited services running between 8:00 and 19:00. All underground stations remain open 24 hours a day to provide shelter.[55] According to Kyiv's mayor Vitali Klitschko, on 2 March 2022, as many as 150,000 residents of Kyiv are seeking shelter in the city's Metro facilities.[56]