I think now it's Maydan and Russian intervention, and of course shot down by terrorists Boeing MH-17.. Now we have hard times:(

Kubanek, I think you don't know about Ukraine enough to indicate provincialism use of the Ukrainian language. And of couse it is just the Cyrillic symbols and similar spelling of words makes an impression similarity of these languages. But I know Ukrainian and Russian perfectly, and I can say that it is two very-very different languages! First of all, the difference in phonetics, in sound! The Ukrainian language has open sounds, Russian always sounds reduced (stressed).
It's very interesting for me what is your arguments of your "theory" about first learned language ???)))

P.S. "As a Pole u could say, that there is "unwelcoming" environment there, because western Ukraine" was occupied by Poland (but I think it is just a your-self prejudice, because I don't know anybody who think like u after visited and communicated with citizen)

I wish you good results in the study of these languages, moreover you have the Ukrainian surname :))

Hi) Lexical similarity between English and German 51%, between Ukrainian and Russian 62% ) There are a some word which similar spelling, but usually they sound very differently. So, first of all, the difference between the two languages in phonetics. The Ukrainian language has open sounds, Russian language often sounds more reduced (stressed).
For example, we write the word "молоко"(milk) in both languages similarly. But in Ukrainian it is sounds like [moloko], in Russian [mlako] or [malako]. In the Ukrainian language the words sound as written, in Russian the words often don`t sound as written. There are many exceptions in Russian. Therefore, it is more and more easier to learn Ukrainian. Especially for English-speaker (because of open vowels).
Often there are mistakes in pronunciation of Cyrillic letters "e", "i", "и" and "ы". These letters have a different sound in Ukrainian and Russian language.
All the words vary according to voice, mood, tense, number, and person. In many cases, they are not identical in Ukrainian and Russian. Also, very often the sentence isn't built the same way. These languages have different phraseology, constant expressions, proverb and sayings. But the Cyrillic symbols and similar spelling of words makes an impression similarity of these languages.