This video was recorded by Kristen Tcherneshoff in Sweden. The modern Ukrainian language has existed since the late 1600s and descends from the Old East Slavic language of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus', however its status within various empires has been complicated and sometimes marginalized throughout history. Ukrainian was banned in schools by the Russian Empire beginning in 1804 and lasting until the Russian Revolution in 1917. It is currently the official language of Ukraine and one of three official languages in the state of Transnistria. Ukrainian has a standard regulating body known as the NASU Institute of the Ukrainian Language, which is a branch of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU). It was formed in 1991 with the purpose of standardizing Ukrainian vocabulary and grammar, as well as formally documenting the language's history with cooperation from other countries. The institute has collaborated with international researchers to contribute to the Slavic Linguistic Atlas. The Ukrainian language has some degree of mutual intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian, although the vocabulary of Ukrainian speakers outside of Ukraine shows a lesser degree of Russian influence, and greater numbers of loanwords from local languages.

Ukrainian is spoken by around 36 million people worldwide. It is an East Slavic language within the Indo-European language family.