Here are the ideas of a Swedish woman who knows English, French, German and Russian:
Ukrainian is similar to Russian. I would advice you to go on learning Russian until you know it quite well. If you are a beginner in two similar languages you will just mix them up, so one at a time, please! Btw, although I only know Russian, I was able to understand quite a lot when I read through some threads in this sub-forum.
I have heard that Russians and Ukrainians can communicate with each other while they speak their own language if they speak distinctly and slowly. I have also read that the difference between Russian and Ukrainian is as big as between Dutch and German or a little less than between Spanish and Italian. (I have studied Spanish as well as Italian and to me Spanish and Italian are absolutely two different languages.) I cannot give you the differences in a nutshell because I have not studied Ukrainian yet. While you are waiting for the Ukrainians to answer in this thread you have to google for the differences.
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