How similiar are Russian and Ukrainian?

Hello! I was born and grew up in Ukraine, but I don't consider Ukrainian as my mother tongue, Russian is my native language, and I'll explain why. Actually Ukraine can be divided into two parts: Eastern and Western. The eastern part, including Crimea speaks Russian, maybe because it is closer to Russia, I don't know, it is just how it is. And the Western part speaks only Ukrainian. Districts that are close to Poland have some kind of language mixture (Ukrainian + Polish + Chezh). That part is quite nationalistic. They don't really like Russian people. And I heard so many stories how Russians were treated badly in that part of Ukraine. In the capital of Ukraine people speak both Russian and Ukrainian.  

Люди не спорьте... Українська та російська мови звичайно схожі.... Це ж все таки слов'янські мови. Але в ніх є і свої розбіжності, зокрема, в орфографії та орфоепіці. 

Hello,

here is a site I build to learn Russian

(very  similar   to  Ukrainian language)  

with a Russian keyboard to Chat 

and learn many   languages of   the   world :

Arabic,  Hebrew,  Russian,   Macedonian,

Albanian,  Breton,   Irish Gaelic,  Swedish,  Swahili ...

http://lang.svenska.free.fr

and   also  a  "Polyglot Chat"  to   speak  with  people

all   over   the  World  in  many   different  languages.

Best   regards   from   city  Toulouse    (Southern  FRANCE)

François

Hello. Here are my thoughts on the subject.

Russian and Ukrainian are similiar in many ways but they are far from being identical. Alphabet and Syntax  are rather the same, but grammar is not. Ukrainian grammar is more simple and stands much nearer to other slavian languages than russian one does. Vocabulary also have many serious differences. With a surprise I found out that greater part of people in Russia can't follow fluent Ukrainian and the most of them don't get even written Ukrainian while people living in Ukraine in common know both languages because of historical conditions. You will not feel yourself more comfortable with one language if you know just the other. You have to  study both of them separately otherwise you get no chance to express your thoughts. As for a non-native slavian speaker it makes the task even more difficult.

However... Those were right who said that understanding any of those two is just a matter of beeing used to. So, while Russian is more difficult and has greater amount of exclusions it can be  more preferable to concentrate on studying it. In the other hand, Ukrainian makes more good for the success with other slavian languages.

Hi, a lot of my family members are either historians or somehow their job is  related  to it or they just study it for pleasure and curiosity.  I see that  member  "gigant26" the person  that wrote: 

  "Being a native of both Ukrainian and Russian, and also being an amateur linguist, let me explain a few things. First, Ukrainian did not develop directly from Russian or vice versa. Ukrainian developed from the language spoken in the Kievan Rus'.    etc. "

is quite knowledgeable in both history and current events of Russians and Ukrainians. I AGREE WITH THIS MEMBER TOTALLY.... please be aware that most of what is now was created at some point in history. Everything that he said  is correct, these languages ARE similar in several ways, i read all of the comments on this topic and i noticed that a lot of people are saying that the Russian and Ukrainian languages are not similar, wrong, *please don't take this personally* either you didn't notice the similarities, or are not so familiar with both/either languages or some other reason. I believe that not all people have it easy to learn a language. 

However, just  because you  know  Russian/Ukrainian doesn't mean you  can  easily understand  Ukrainian/Russian. There are* similarities  between these languages and you will* understand (not fluently) one of them, if you know the other  fluently.

I can go on  "lecturing" forever (at least until i get tired or bored of it), but these  facts, i suppose,  are basically   what you asked, am i right? WELL THEN Alrighty-almighty,

adios, sayonara, dasvidanie, dopobachenya, areua, chocolom, and finally in english... bye