Cruiser,
First, let's just stop with the stereotypes. Ukrainians are not lazy. They work very hard, many are brilliant at what they can do to just survive. It is a tough life there for many and "laziness" will kill you.
The real problem is that for 75 years, there was no concept of service, there was no real service industry. I had the dubious pleasure of dining in many Soviet restaurants and service did not exist even in the best ones. This is slowly changing but it will take a long long time to reach standards that many of us are used to in Western Europe or the USA.
You come here, you have got to take the very good (the ladies) with the not so good and the bad. By the way, I am surprised you did not meet with your apartment rental people. You should have tried to speak with them in person about these issues as they happened and not try to do it by phone.
There are also problems with the infrastructure that will also take time to correct. That is why getting hot water can be an occasional problem. I have to put up with it from time to time. The water is occasionally shut off in the building if someone is doing a renovation to their apartment's plumbing. After a time, it is almost tolerable, you understand it, and by the way, they do post such shut-offs in the building so it is not a surprise.
All buildings in Kiev have these problems except those that are newly built for very elite prices.
I am glad you chuckled about the service tech. They do come out to visit but these guys are only capable of doing a good job on the spot for extra cash.