Having come from Ukraine many years ago, and being amongst those who spoke the Ukrainian language dialect in Halychyna, the pronunciation of "Y" is unlike the bi in Russian. In fact, its closer to the english word "it" as in: bit.

Although, my Ukrainian is quite rusty, I still am going to Saturday school to take an adult course at our church to relearn my Ukrainian.

Djakuju za tvoju uvahu.

Roman Melnychuk