I worked for someone once (pre-9/11) who would do the go to airport 30 minutes before flight sort of thing. Absolutely hated it. Airport was close to downtown Boston but still not how I like to catch planes even if delays are rarely an issue.
When I lived in Kyiv and airports were still a thing, flying from Zhuliany was a bliss. Something like 30 minutes from the apartment door to sitting at the gate. The fact that it's small and in city limits was a deciding factor.
Boryspil' is twice the distance from the city center (whatever you pick for city center in Kyiv) and is quite nice and modern airport with all the problems of a big modern airport -- it's huge, lines are long and unpredictable and it doubles as a mall.
