[rmlew]

Everyone spoke Russian and most still do because it was the language of the USSR and because Ukraine trades a lot with Russia and gets Russian media. But Ukranian and Russian are different languages, just as Spanish and Portugese are. Ukranian, Russian and Belorussian are descended from Old East Slavic the language of the Kievan Rus, at least in the South. Novgorod had another dialect of Eastern Slavic. Modern Russian is descended from both of these. Ukranian is descended from Old East Slavic, by way of Ruthenian along with considerable Polish influence and loanwords. Belorussian is quite similar. According to a family friend who teaches Slavic languages, Ukranian, Belarussian and Russyn are all modern dialects of Ruthenian. But Russian is a different language.

[Marguerite]

“Ukranian and Russian are different languages, just as Spanish and Portugese are”

I wouldn’t go so far.
Ukrainian and Russian are much more similar than Spanish and Portugese.
If you use any Russian language translation software, it will work for Ukrainian and vice-versa.
The easy to see the difference: a letter that looks like an English ‘i’, with two dots over it, then it’s Ukrainian; if not , it’s Russian. Another difference: difference, is that in Ukrainian the ‘g’ sounds like an ‘h’.

Any Ukrainian undrstand Russian, as any Russian understand Ukrainian. Only the fierce nationalism in western Ukraine pushed to a differenciation in language.

One in three citizens of Ukraine is a native Russian language speaker.

[Bulwyf]

Oh, I know it’s a different language, I was just pointing out that most spoke Russian.

I noticed while there that you either had a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Lada. In other words, you were either connected to the mob or you weren’t.