Ukraine is still working at changing the dismal Soviet legacy and the lingering of the ominous ruins of Chernobyl and yet is a country of rolling countryside, where villages are set amid silver birches.The countryside west of Kiev is particularly charming with green-painted cottages amid gardens of sunflowers, potatoes, apples and corn in the rich black earth that earned Ukraine the title of breadbasket of the Soviet Union. Kiev, especially, has become an island of Western Europe amid a sea of Soviet-style cities with elegant bars and restaurants.