I don't think that major Ukrainian cities of let's say post-Stalin era were in worse shape then comparable Russian cities of the same time. You had more 'deficit' goods in Moscow sure, I don't know if Kyiv was lacking anything else to be honest.

Rural/urban gap was very real though but with each decade more and more people were able to live in the cities due to extensive housing program.

Around 1990-1991 there was a popular sentiment in Ukraine that we are feeding the whole Union etc, something similar was in Russia (that they subsidize other republics), the reality was a bit of a mixed bag