Ukrainians often know Russian, but Russians don't often know Ukrainian. So while Ukrainian and Russian are distinct linguistically, there is an important asymmetry to be aware of: even though most Russians don't know or understand Ukrainian because it's a different language, most Ukrainians know and understand Russian.

Most people who speak Ukrainian can understand Russian quite well, though the reverse is often not true. This "asymmetric intelligibility" is largely due to historical and social factors; for decades, Russian was the dominant language of media, education, and government in Ukraine, meaning most Ukrainians grew up with significant exposure to it. Linguistically, the two languages share approximately 62% of their vocabulary, which is roughly similar to the relationship between Spanish and Italian. However, they are distinct languages with significant differences in phonetics, grammar, and "false friends"—words that sound the same but have different meanings. While a Ukrainian speaker can usually follow the "gist" of a Russian conversation without prior study, a Russian speaker who has never been exposed to Ukrainian will likely only understand about 30% of what is said, as Ukrainian shares more structural and lexical similarities with Polish and Belarusian. In 2026, while many Ukrainians are choosing to speak only Ukrainian for cultural reasons, the underlying ability to comprehend Russian remains widespread among the adult population.