Also, you could make some kvass. It's mostly non-alcoholic there now, but there is a recipe in Mosher's Radical Brewing for one that is around 5%. It could be a nice treat to make the "old" style of it for him.
As for me personally, it was the one Ukrainian food/drink I didn't like.
I have been to the Ukraine and I actually like Bile (pronounced bee-lay). It is an unfiltered wheat beer, but if I recall it didn't have as much of the hefe yeast taste but its been five years. The other major beer I drank there was Chernigivske which was your standard lager, but it had a bit of...