Comment by brabel

Ukraine has a lot of Russian speakers, I would think most of the population can actually speak Russian, or a mix of Ukrainian and Russian (given the similarity between the languages)... on TV, it's common for people to switch languages mid-conversation, for example...

With that said: Ukraine is a big country with a very strong culture that differs from Russian culture in (for us, foreigners) subtle ways. Near the border with Russia, however, Russian culture is stronger, hence some regions even associating themselves more strongly with Russia than with Ukraine (Krimea was one of those regions, by the way, which may explain to people who are unaware of this situation why there was no popular revolt - quite the contrary - against the Russian occupation).