Ukrainien: a mix of Polish and Russian?

The recorded history of the Ukrainian language began in 988, when the principality of Kiev was converted to Christianity. Ukrainian religious material, including translations of the Bible, was written in Old Slavonic, the language used by missionaries to spread Christianity to the Slavic peoples.

In the 13th century, Ukraine became part of Lithuanian and an early form of Belarusian became the main language. The remaining parts of Ukraine were taken over by Poland during the 16th century and Latin and Polish were used for official purposes.

The Cossacks later moved into eastern Ukraine and during the 18th century, their leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, invited Russia to help against Polish domination. During the reign of Catherine the Great, the Cossacks moved to the eastern frontiers of Russia, but Ukraine remained under Russian domination, and the Russians considered the Ukrainian language as little more than a dialect of Russian.

A decree in 1876 banned the printing or importing of Ukrainian books. Inspite of this, there was a revival of Ukrainian poetry and historiography during the 19th century.

Ukraine enjoyed a brief period of independence from 1918 to 1919, then was taken over by the USSR and declared a Soviet Republic. During the Soviet era, Russian was the main language of education and employment and Ukrainian was sidelined.

Ukraine declared independence in 1991. Since then many Ukrainian �migr�s have returned to Ukraine, particularly from central Asia and Siberia.

similar relation to russian language but not the same, second not at all close to polish, to many z's and j's lol

Like I said Ukrainian is 60% Polish and 40% Russian. I was born their and live there. I speak Polish, Ukrainian, Russian. A very little bit of Czech. I lived in Czech Republic fpr 2 yrs. They have a very different language. I am Polish- Ukrainian-Russian, and part Zaporozhian Kozak.