Dating Ukrainian women is one of the best thing you can do. Ukrainian women are feminine, friendly and know how to take care of their man.
As a Ukrainian guide who’s currently living in Ukraine, in this comprehensive guide, I will tell you exactly what you need to know when it comes to dating Ukrainian women.
Introduction
There’s simply no better combination than:
1) being single
2) being young (or young at heart)
3) living in Ukraine
4) Bonus points: speaking fluent Russian without an accent (or having a cool accent)
Fortunately, as a Ukrainian guy who recently returned to his homeland after many years abroad, I’ve somehow managed to win the jackpot by hitting all four.
As a result, my dating life has never been better—and I’m speaking as someone with a rich perspective. For the past eleven years, I’ve been living abroad, including a seven-year stint in Latin America, where I’ve lived in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Brazil.
Yes, Ukrainian women are amazingly awesome and, had I known what I know now, I would’ve skipped Latin America altogether and come straight here.
These days, I literally have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. It’s that good.
After all, hindsight is 20/20…
But it’s not all peaches and cream in this former Soviet Union country. In this article, I want to dive deep and talk about what it’s really like dating Ukrainian women, along with the less obvious pros and cons.
Dating Ukrainian women – The pros
Super feminine
OK, let’s get straight down the business. Ukrainian women are the most feminine women in the world.
There, I said it.
Never before, have experienced such grace and femininity.
Never before, have I met women that actually behaved like women.
And before you jump at me and tell that I’m somehow wrong, I’m speaking from a rich perspective of having dated women all over Latin America and Eastern Europe.
I know what I’m talking about.
Yes, Latin American women are feminine too. Brazilian women and Colombian women definitely earn points, but Ukrainian women are simply on another level.
Even words don’t do it justice. As a man, one of the things that you notice right away is that you automatically become more masculine around women that just ooze femininity.
I definitely have experienced this transformation.
A typical date with an American woman consists of busting each other balls and trying to outmaneuver each other, so it’s impossible to understand who’s the man—her or you.
But, here in Ukraine, where women emit such strong femininity, I automatically feel masculine and strong. It just comes out naturally without me having to do anything extra.
That means I act more like a gentleman, and do things that are expected of me like opening doors, pulling out the chairs, helping them with their coats, etc.
All the men do it here so it doesn’t appear weird or strange, and women aren’t going to make fun of your behavior like they might in America.
Beyond beautiful
All right, so this is probably not a surprise to long-time readers of Maverick Traveler.
After all, I’m sure you’ve seen countless articles praising the beauty of Ukrainian women.
It’s all true; their beauty is truly uncontested.
But, first, let’s back up for a second. What is beauty, anyway? Aren’t Colombian women beautiful? Aren’t Brazilian women beautiful? Aren’t Argentinian women beautiful?
Yes, yes, and yes. All of those women are beautiful.
But Ukrainian women are a notch above. In fact, sometimes I feel like I’m at a permanent model convention, where regardless which part of the city I’m, there’s always a very beautiful woman that catches my eye.
I never felt like this in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina or pretty much in any other country.
This is something I’ve been thinking about long and hard, and I still don’t know whether it’s me or the women.
Of course, it could be because I’m Ukrainian myself. I’ve been surrounded by Eastern European women all my life.
Maybe I have a rare psychological strain that automatically draws me to Slavic women more than others.
Even prettier than Russian women
Many people mistakenly equate Ukrainian and Russian women. Although there are tons of similarities, there are important differences.
It’s a very tough call, but I feel that Ukrainian women are more attractive than Russian women. Russian women are beautiful too, but compared to Ukrainian women, they are plainer in appearance.
A typical Ukrainian woman has a certain “mystique” in her facial expression and overall body language. It’s almost like she’s thinking about something and won’t tell you what it is.
It’s like she knows something that you don’t.
It’s like she’s about to trick you into doing something you didn’t want to do.
Adding to the allure, Ukrainian women are usually darker than Russian women. A typical Ukrainian woman has dark hair and slightly darker skin tone than her Russian counterpart.
Conservative but not super traditional
One of the prevailing myths about Ukrainian women is that they’re conservative and traditional.
I beg to disagree.
First, let’s tackle the conservative part. Ukrainian women are fairly conservative when it comes to dating and relationships. Unlike in America, where you can meet a girl and have sex the same night, this is extremely rare in Ukraine.
An exception would be if you happened to meet a girl in a trashy club, hit it off and invited her back to your place. This is the only situation I can see it happening.
When it comes to being traditional, that’s a completely different ball game. When I think of the definition of traditional, I imagine a woman who will stay at home, take care of the house, raise the kids, cook and iron your shirts.
That pretty much describes my own amazing mother. She’s very traditional.
But my mom lived in another era, in another country (Soviet Union).
In the big Ukrainian cities, such as Kiev, Dnepr or Odessa, most of the women I’ve been meeting are working long hours and don’t even know how to whip up even a simple Borsch (Ukrainian traditional soup).
I have met lots of women who’re very driven, love their work and want to achieve a lot.
They live alone, work hard and barely have time to cook their own meals.
It’s not much different from the Western lifestyle in a city like New York or Chicago.
Of course, traditional women do exist, but they’re probably living in smaller cities or towns where life is less hectic and simpler.
Don’t get me wrong: unlike Western women, even these “big city women” are still very feminine and nurturing.
Being a foreigner doesn’t mean much
Look, maybe back in 1995 a foreigner could fly into Kiev, wave his passport outside the airport and be immediately swarmed with hundreds of women like a celebrity. That’s no longer the case.
Nowadays, Ukraine has been overrun with all kinds of foreigners (especially hordes of Turkish men) and being a foreigner doesn’t really mean much anymore.
I do believe there are two types of Ukrainian women: the type who is not interested in foreigners and the type who is at least open to dating foreigners.
There are two main reasons that a Ukrainian woman would date a foreigner: first, she’s tired of Ukraine and wants to immigrate elsewhere. Second, she doesn’t like Ukrainian men and believes that foreign men are more understanding and sensitive to her needs.
Both of those are valid reasons, of course. There are more opportunities abroad and Ukrainian men can be too stoic and macho, plus they lack a certain charisma associated with Western men.
If you’re a foreigner, get ready for some serious testing, beginning with the classic question every foreigner has heard at least 25 times: “What are you doing in Ukraine?”
Big age difference is normal
In America, there’s a certain taboo when a man is much older than the woman he’s dating. I know that 25-year-old women mostly date guys around their age range.
It would be pretty uncommon for a 40-year-old guy to be dating a 25-year-old girl. It just wouldn’t be culturally accepted.
On the other hand, in Ukraine, it’s completely normal to have a difference of ten years or more.
I used to date a girl who was ten years younger than me. There was nothing strange or unnatural about it. I met her entire family and they treated me like their own.
One of my friends recently married a woman around 20 years his junior.
I’ve also met plenty of women here who actually preferred older guys as opposed to those their own age.
One explanation for this is because women tend to mature quickly here. I’ve met lots of women in their early- to mid-20s and they seemed a lot more mature than their Western counterparts.
They had great jobs, made decent money (not Western level, of course) and generally spared no expenses for themselves.
Of course, I’m not saying that if you’re 55 or 60, you’ll be able to date 20-year-olds with ease.
On the other hand, if you’re 35-45, you’ll have no problems dating women at least 10-15 years younger.
Strangely enough, this is not the case in Central European countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Croatia. In that region, women behave more like their American counterparts and prefer men closer to their own age.
Relationships move fast
In America, you can date someone for many years before even mentioning the big “c word” (commitment). It’s not uncommon to be dating for up to 10 years before making your relationship official (marriage).
Especially in the big cities, people aren’t in a rush to get married and have children. There’s a strong focus on “staying busy”: advancing career, doing extracurricular activities, being involved with charities and what not.
I’ve dated American women who were in their early 30s and they acted as carefree as women in their early 20s, even though it’s a lot easier for the latter to conceive than the former.
In Ukraine, relationships move a lot faster. First, there are biological constraints. There’s a certain rush to secure a good man by the magical ages of 28-30 or so, and even more so during the crucial ages of 30-33.
Even more important is the fact that the Ukrainian dating culture is much more relaxed and informal. There are fewer rules and distractions. People are generally less busy for the sake of being busy. Getting married and having children is the ultimate goal for the 99% of Ukrainian women.
I’ve been in situations where I would meet a girl, we would click, our relationship would move very fast, and before you knew it, she was spending most nights at my place. Living together was the next logical step. Marriage and kids naturally flow from there. Nothing about the above felt rushed or forced.
Dating Ukrainian women – The cons
Transactional relationships
This is a crucial point to understand. Most relationships in Ukraine are transactional in nature.
OK, but what does “transactional” even mean?
If you’re in a relationship with a Ukrainian woman, she expects you to do stuff for her, like buying her nice things or “solving” her problems. And, in case you’re too obtuse to figure out what to buy, she will kindly remind you.
The hotter girl, the more requests you’ll get, and the more expensive she’ll expect the gifts to be.
This is the complete opposite of the “50/50” relationships that are common in America and Western Europe.
For instance, let’s say you’re flying to New York for two weeks to see your family. Your girl has never been to New York. But, she knows that there are stores like Victoria Secret and a hundred of others trendy shops that don’t exist in Ukraine.
She knows that other Ukrainian women wear trendy clothing from those stores.
So, she will ask you to buy her something.
Another example is when a new iPhone comes out. Obviously, your girl wouldn’t mind one. Especially if her current phone is a few generations behind.
So, if she has even hinted at wanting one, don’t even think to yourself for a second that you can fly to New York, go to the Apple Store and buy yourself the newest iPhone without buying her one too.
You’re going to be in for a lot of pain when you return back to Ukraine.
A lot of guys mistake this behavior for “gold digging” or “materialistic.”
This is a common mistake and they’re wrong.
This “transactional” behavior is deeply embedded in the Eastern European culture.
There’s nothing inherently bad or “gold digging” about buying nice things for your girl every now and then.
Of course, just like anywhere else, gold diggers do exist. They will also ask you to constantly buy them stuff, they will run up expensive tabs in bars and restaurants, etc.
What I’m talking about is very different.
I personally don’t have any issues buying nice things for a girl whose company I truly enjoy.
Just don’t go overboard and shower her with gifts every time you meet. That’s a bit too much and screams of desperation.
I can see this transactional nature of relationships being a problem if your idea of a relationship is sex in exchange for dinners or drinks (or free sex), or if you’re overly stingy. Ukrainian women hate stingy guys.
They’re materialistic
A close corollary to the above is that many Ukrainian women are overly materialistic.
They follow fashion trends and will spend their last cent (or their monthly salary) on a new bag, some piece of clothing or even a new iPhone that they can barely afford.
I’ve dated women who were spending all their free time on Instagram and impulse purchasing things like clothing and accessories, and pretty much anything else that caught their attention.
(Of course, this is great for guys like me who sell products on Facebook and Instagram)
Nevermind that she already had a couple of expensive bags—if there was one that she liked, she’d had to have it anyway.
Nevermind that she already had a couple of great (and expensive) bathing suits—if there was one that she liked, she’d have to have it anyway.
And, just like I alluded above, she will get upset at you if you have an opportunity to buy her something she always wanted, but don’t. She may even think you’re cheap and ungrateful.
They age quicker
I debated writing this, and, who knows, I might be completely off-the-mark here, but I did notice that women in this part of the world—and this goes for most Slavic women—age relatively faster than women in other parts of the world.
In Brazil, women seemed to age like fine wine. During my multi-year sojourn in the country, I was mostly attracted to women in the 27-33 age range. I found younger Brazilian women simply too immature and childish for my taste.
But in Ukraine and Russia, I noticed that women seem to undergo some radical change around the age of 31-33.
Of course, this is not the case with all women. I’ve certainly seen a good share of women who don’t look their age at all, but they seem to be in the minority.
I honestly don’t know why that is. Maybe it’s genetic, maybe it’s because of alcohol, maybe it’s because of a hard Eastern European life, or maybe it’s something else.
They will test you constantly
Ukrainian women along with other Eastern European women (e.g., Russians women) have a tendency to constantly test you and keep you on your toes. The truth is that all women test their men, but Ukrainian women take it up several notches.
Typically, the hotter the woman, the access she has to other men, the more she will test you.
The purpose of these tests is to determine how strong of a man you are. A man who’s weak and needy will easily fail such tests and the woman’s attraction for him would immediately drop.
But if a man is confident with himself, he should have no issues passing all of these tests with flying colors.
As an Eastern European man, I’ve been dealing with these tests pretty much my entire life. This behavior is embedded in the culture.
What’s interesting is that my experience with Polish women and Lithuanian women has shown that they don’t test their men nearly as much.
Furthermore, the more West you go, the more relaxed and chill are the women. I can’t ever picture a German or a Danish woman testing a man as methodically and surgically precise as a Ukrainian woman.
At this point, you’re probably wondering whether this testing ends at some point. The answer: no, it doesn’t. It goes on for the length of the relationship.
If a woman isn’t testing you, that usually means she’s losing (or already lost) interest in you and it’s just a matter of time until your relationship comes to an end.
Final thoughts
So, there you have it. The good, the bad and the ugly of the dating culture in Ukraine.
Of course, I can keep listing more pros and cons, but all I know is that out of the 15+ countries where I lived for more than 3 months, I’ve never been happier than right here in Ukraine. After roaming around the world for the past twelve years, I’ve finally discovered my paradise on earth: my very own country.
And, btw, if you’re looking for an absolute best place to meet quality Ukrainian women online, check out Ukraine Date. It’s the absolute best to place to meet and date Ukrainian women.