Without question, more non-Ukrainian citizens have uttered the word “Kyiv” in the past 3 weeks than the cumulative total over the rest of their lives. But have they been pronouncing it correctly?
Pronouncing place names in foreign countries is challenging for any non-native speaker in any language. But there is clearly incentive worldwide to show sympathy with the beleaguered Ukrainians by pronouncing their capital and other city names correctly.
A video I saw a few weeks ago (sorry, can’t find it now) explained the proper pronunciation for Kyiv. Most important — it’s 2 syllables, with accent on the first: KEE-iv. So the most common mispronunciation I’ve heard is the single-syllable KEEV. And the old pronunciation Kee-EV that I grew up with is now identified as the Russian pronunciation, so profoundly to be avoided.
But of course, it is common to pronounce geographic names differently than the native pronunciation. Just ask any American to pronounce Paris.