[Freelance Warrior]

Russian and Ukrainian are interintelligible in the written form without any formal instruction. The oral form requires a minimal experience. But speaking Ukrainian in the 'correct way' is a challenge even for most modern Ukrainians.

The 'language vs dialect' issue has no solution within the science, it's a political thing. There are dialects in Russian which differ grammatically from the literary Russian, e.g. with the definite article.

The 'Russian commies' thing is a manipulation since the ethnic Ukrainians of the Soviet era were equally Communist as the Russians.

[vladimir998]

“The ‘Russian commies’ thing is a manipulation since the ethnic Ukrainians of the Soviet era were equally Communist as the Russians.”

No. Russian commies invaded and imposed communism on Ukraine. Ukrainian communists were never anything other than servants of Russian communists.