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I suppose it's about asserting national identity. Although "Kiev" is the received way of spelling the city in English, it is transliterated from Russian. It might just take time for "Kyiv" to catch on in English, like "Beijing" has over "Peking".
I think this is being pretty picky. Many Canadian English documents use Kiev spelling and it is totally acceptable.
If we're translating to ENGLISH, the ENGLISH spelling should be acceptable....
The new official English spelling is "Kyiv", as can be seen from the embassy websites of these English-speaking countries: https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-embassy-kyiv http://ukraine.embassy.gov.au/ http://canadainternational.gc.ca/ukraine/contact-contactez.aspx https://ua.usembassy.gov/. This spelling supersedes the former official spelling "Kiev", which was based on transliteration from Russian.
No, the official spelling is Kiev. This is not like Peking vs Bejing. Within Kiev, Russian is still spoken. Also, the majority of the history of Kiev has has the Києвъ/Кіевъ/Киев pronunciation, which goes back to the Old Rus'. Київ is an evolution of Pronunciation that really shouldn't have an impact on English. English has used Kiev since the language's first understanding of the city was as Old Russian Kiev, not Kyiv. In my opinion, just let people do what they will. If they use Kyiv, fine. If they use Kiev, fine. Kiev simply has more historical precedent.
Kiev may not be the current official spelling, but I, as a Ukrainian, am used to spelling it as Kiev.
Мне тоже. Я говорю по-русски (я из Донецкой области), поэтому я говорю «Киев». Это больше простой чем говорить «Київ». Я использую «Kiev» на английском, не «Kyiv». Это не имеет в смысл использовать форму слова который не естественна или лёгкая для меня (или для вас).
I used to spell this as Kiev, but that is the English version of a Russian spelling. Translating Київ into English will produce Kyiv. This shows how far Ukraine was "Russified" during the times of the Soviet Union.
