Ukrainian is an East Slavic language. (Has many similarities to Polish, Belarusian and Russian)

It is the official state language of Ukraine and first of two principal languages of Ukrainians; it is one of the three official languages in the unrecognized state of Transnistria, the other two being Romanian and Russian.

Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script.

There are two writing systems available: Cyrillic (Ukrainian) script; Ukrainian Braille.

Fun fact: Ukrainian had been described by many as one of the most melodic and beautifully sounding languages in the world.

Ukrainian is spoken mainly in Western Ukraine while in Eastern Ukraine Russian is more widely spoken. That is due to the fact that during the Soviet Union Era the Russian language was mandatory at school and most subjects were taught in that language. Speaking Ukrainian at that time was prohibited and considered a “dialect” of the Russian language, which is not true. Also, many pieces of Ukrainian literature were banned then and there was an overall “war” on the Ukrainian language.

In Eastern Ukraine, “Surzhyk” is a popular dialect. “Surzhyk” is a combination of both Russian and Ukrainian.

The last few years more and more Ukrainians are speaking Ukrainian. Not Russian, not Surzhyk.

Russian is an official “minority” language alongside with others such as Romanian, Hungarian, Polish and the Crimean Tatar language. Students in schools of Ukraine have the choice to take some exams for the entrance to universities in other languages as well (depending on the university).