belongs to the Slavic family , compared with Russian, Ukrainian is closer to Belarusian . Compared with Russian, Ukrainian, 38% of the vocabulary are different.
If you compare horizontally, English, which belongs to the Germanic family, , has 37% different vocabulary from Dutch , and Dutch German , is 25% different from German , while Spanish , which belongs to the Latin family, is 41% different from Italian , French and Portuguese , and Italian , is 39% different from French and Portuguese.
People don’t think that these languages are interrelated, right? Or are there dialect relationships between each other?
Generally speaking, Ukrainians can understand Russian, but it is difficult for Russians to understand Ukrainian. The reasons for this unique phenomenon are Tsarist Russian and Russian language hegemony over Ukraine during the Soviet period, mainly during the Soviet period.
During the Soviet period, Ukraine's governments at all levels and important industrial and commercial cities were mainly influenced by Russian culture, and the education system was also popular in Russian. Therefore, in these places, the language of daily communication was naturally mainly Russian.
If Ukrainians want to enter the government system, or work, live and receive education in big cities, they must first learn Russian, otherwise they will be unable to move forward. Over time, Ukrainians who originally lived in towns and rural areas and could not speak Russian at all can understand Russian, while Russians in Ukraine have no motivation to learn Ukrainian, so it is normal for them to know Ukrainian.
