How different are Ukrainian and Russian?

[MsAmerica]

Ukrainians keep insisting they have their own language, but from bits I heard on television of Ukrainians interviewed, I kept hearing words that sounded exactly like Russian. (Really, even Vladimir and Volodymyr are virtually identical.)

But then it occurred to me that maybe the Ukrainians were speaking in Russian for the interviews...

It's worth mentioning that Wladimir Klitschko is also Ukrainian but has another spelling. I'm assuming Zelenskyy is spelt that way because he's Jewish rather than Ukrainian. Total guess tho.

I found this helpful to understand the differences: blog.duolingo.com/ukraine-language/

Also ‘Ukrainians keep insisting they have their own language’ is a bit of a weird way to put it isn’t it? They definitely do have their own language. It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.

Keev and Kiev are different pronunciations of Kyiv.

@ActonBell. That's a fascinating article. Thanks for sharing.

Many languages have similar roots and have words that sound like each other, doesn't mean they're not individual languages though. Think about languages like Spanish and Italian, or Norwegian and Swedish. Even small differences in pronunciation or spelling count.

[quote ActonBell]I found this helpful to understand the differences: blog.duolingo.com/ukraine-language/[/quote]
This is really interesting, thanks for the link @ActonBell.

I distinctly recall previous use of the Ukraine and knew it seemed archaic but didn’t know why.

Spanish and Portuguese languages share almost 90 percent similarity, Spanish and Italian - 82, while Russian and Ukrainian have 62 percent similarity. Why French and Italian people insist on having their own languages?

Russian is widely spoken in the east of Ukraine and a lot of those interviews are in Russian. Both are the same language family, with around 60% shared vocab, but they are different languages, with different grammar, vocab, and there are alphabet differences. A Russian speaker who has not had exposure to Ukrainian will not understand it all, whereas most people in Ukraine have had a lot of exposure to Russian and can understand it.

Zelensky is a Russian speaker. I would love to know what language he is speaking each time he’s on TV.

The boundary between language and dialect is often not clear and often more of a political decision. See Galician and Portuguese or Norwegian and Danish.
There is no one answer to these questions quite often.

@Notoironing Zelensky can speak both Russian and Ukrainian but whenever he speaks on TV as the president of Ukraine, he is speaking Ukrainian.

Before he became president, he used to be an actor and some of his work was Russian speaking, for example there is the TV series "Servant of the people", which btw can be watched on channel 4's online catch up channel in the UK. This TV series is set in the Ukraine, but the main language of the show is Russian, although some conversation are in Ukrainian.

I speak Russian and understand some Ukrainian, although it's a difficult language for me to understand.

I see that from the outside the two languages sound very similar, as would any other Slavic languages, including Polish for example. I can understand some Polish words but can't really follow a conversation. The same is with Ukrainian.

@MsAmerica Vladimir and Volodymyr are the same name in different cultures/languages. It's the same as Michael / Michele / Michail / Michal to name a few (English / Italian / Russian / Polish). The little differences in the name only confirm that is a different language.

according to my linguist friend those languages are as similar as german and dutch.
i.e. similar grammar and a lot of similar words but different pronunciation and a lot of false friends.
(northern) german people can understand some dutch/get the gist if spoken slowly (and vice versa)

As president I have only heard him speak Ukrainian. Russian is his first language though and his comedy show was mainly in Russian. I heard that when he ran for president some people mocked his Russian accent.