How similar are Russian and Ukrainian?
First, Ukrainian and Russian descend from the same mother language spoken about 1000-1500 years ago (we can call that language, which also gave birth to Belorussian, Proto-Eastern Slavic). They are thus VERY closely related to one another. The degree of relationship is about the same as that between English and Dutch. Second, because they have had about 1000 years of separate development, they are no longer mutually intelligible, even though it is clear from linguistic examination of syntax, morphology, and vocabulary that they are closely related. Their vocabulary is about 80-90% clearly relatable (although sound changes in both Russian and Ukrainian mean that they are not always “identical”). Third, because Ukraine was under Polish control for several centuries, there are many Polish loan words in Ukrainian, thus common words in Russian and Ukrainian sometimes differ because Ukrainian has borrowed the Polish word. The words for “love”, “understand”, and “yes” are good examples of thi
