No Edward, I am not him. I did find an interesting forum: www.expatua.com There is a story about an American who finally got his permanent residence for Ukraine. He said that every OVIR operates differently. There is a lot of paper work. the total cost was about 3000 grivinas.
After you get the PR card, you need to go to ZHEK to get it stamped; I think that is to register your residence address in Ukraine.
After you get the PR, I think you can come and go in and out of Ukraine without any problems, but you need to change your photograph every 10 years.
If you have any income from working in Ukraine, I belive the income tax rate is lower for Ukrainians than for foreigners.
Again i'll state, there is the correct way to do things,
and the way most ukrainians do things when it comes to rules /regulations of this sort.
While i have not lived there, i have some experience in lubricating the system there.. and have lived in very similar countries /cultures.if you do it by the book, plan on lots of stalling, lots of time spent, and lots of headaches.Most of which can be avoided with a bottle of vodka with a certian denomenation tied to the bottles neck to the right people.. There is a hard way and wan easy way.Continue to research and speak to locak ex pats with some experience there.and remember it is a big risk on getting your SS while permanent resident in a foriegn country.do not think that it isn't regardless where you set the account up.There are as many horror stories on that as there are people doing so successfully.In your shoes I would at the very least budget for routine trips to the USA , to a place i leased or owned, to verify residency here.good luck