What is the proper Ukrainian pronunciation of 'Київ', 'Харків', 'Львів'?

Wrong wrong and wrong! Almost all the answers here are wrong.

Kyiv is a shortened form of the correct one - Kyyiv. The 'k' sounds the same as in English. The 'y' isn't the correct one, but the closest one, the sound is a bit similar to 'y' in 'weekly' but leans a bit less towards 'i/ee' than in English. The i is a bit harder because there are 2 similar letters in Ukrainian - 'i' that is an actual 'i' and sounds like like 'i' in 'is' and 'ї' that is a bit more tricky and consists of 2 letters and is pronounced like 'yi' in 'yin', but due to there already being one 'y' before that, it's been shortened to only 'i' (which still shouldn't affect the pronunciation). And 'v' is just like 'v' in 'victory'. There's no 'e' in any way in the name, it came from Russian which is NOT native to Ukrainians.

The only difficult part in 'Kharkiv' is the 'kh' which doesn't have the direct representation in the English alphabet, but the closest would be 'h' like in 'hall'. The 'o' part is the same as 'e' in Kyiv.

Lviv doesn't 100% represent the spoken name. There is another letter between 'l' and 'v' which does not have any kind of direct representation in English. The closest sound (yes, not a letter, but only sound) you might get is the sound that you get after 'n' but before you transfer to the 'ew' part in the word 'new'. It'd be the most proper to write it as L'viv (but it wouldn't make much sense in English anyway). The 'o' part is the same as in Kharkiv.

'Київ', 'Харків', and 'Львів' are written as 'Kyiv', 'Kharkiv', and 'Lviv' in English.

In terms of pronunciation (Source for Kyiv pronunciation):

• Kyiv: is a combination of a few sounds that are already familiar to English native speakers:

  1. "yi" is a combination of "k" and the pronunciation of the "i/y" sound in such words as "kit", "silk", and "sync"
  2. "iv" is almost identical to the pronunciation of the word "eve"

• Kharkiv: is pronounced the same way it's written.

• Lviv: is pronounced the same way it's written.

If you want to hear it, you can try forvo.com:

• Київ
• Львів
• Харків

Ukrainian and English have slightly different phonetic alphabets so it is hard to spell out. I will try.

Kyiv is pronounced in Ukrainian as /kiēv/

First Ky- is like ki- in kit. The -iv is pronounced like eve.

Lviv is /lvēv/ or (Lv-eve). The L is a soft consonant though.

Kharkiv is a really tough one to spell out with English phonetic alphabet. I have no idea.

P.S. By phonetic alphabet I mean the one Google uses

Kyiv — Ukrainian language. Kiev — Russian language.

Ukrainian city Kyiv, capital of Ukraine, is pronounced "Kyiv". The name "Kiev" is called Russian-speaking Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

Kyiv [ˈkɪjiu̯] — Ukrainian language.
Kiev [ˈkijɛf] — Russian language.
Kharkiv [ˈxɑrkiu̯] — Ukrainian language.
Kharkov [ˈxarʲkəf] — Russian language.
Lviv [lʲʋiu̯] — Ukrainian language.
Lvov [lʲvof] — Russian language.

Transcriptions are given in IPA, as they're given on Wikipedia/Wiktionary (however there're some variations).