“They many of them look the same slavic way, and speak with the same slavic accent. For the sake of survival,they “identify as” Ukrainians.”
Yep, I sure cannot tell the difference, despite being on Putin’s Payroll (LOL). But seriously, I suspect that only people who understand one or both languages has any chance of telling the difference.
Most Ukrainians speak Russian as a first language.
It’s quite adjustment for Poles, as a few years ago, nobody would be caught dead speaking Russian in Poland. When I went to Warsaw last year, now I see signs in Polish, Russian and Ukrainian.