Quote Originally Posted by Анатолий
Ukrainian and Russian languages are so close that if not for national pride the 2 languages could be considered dialects (together with Belarusian). Ukrainians constantly living and Russia were russified and now the reverse is true in Ukraine (to a lesser extent because Russian is still very strong and in common use in Ukraine). There is a huge number of mixed families and kids had to decide how to report themselves - including myself. My Russian mother insisted on me being Russian and I didn't resist besides, I didn't speak much Ukrainian, didn't read any Ukrainian books at that time.
I disagree that Ukrainian and Russian can be considered dialects. .