I know Ukrainian is the official language, but I heard that russian is more widely spoken. Any help please?

I know these two languages share some vocabulary words, but how similar are they exactly? Are they as close as Spanish and Italian or English and German? Is the difference between Russian and Ukrainian like the difference between Spanish spoken in Spain and Spanish spoken in Mexico?

Could a person understand Russian just by learning Ukrainian, and vice versa?

Thank you.

If I travel to Kiev (the capital of Ukraine), which language should I speak and come the furthest with of Russian and Ukrainian? Do children in Kiev speak russian or Ukrainian?

Thanks for answers.

I speak english, italian, and latin.. but i wanna learn either russian or ukrainian. which one would i be better off learning given my previous experience? (i know it probably wont help) which language is easier (for me), more simple, and overall, "better"?

I'm "mentoring" in a kindergarten class, twice a week.
this past tuesday was my first day, and then again on wednesday. Tuesday and wednesday are both different groups of students, because my mentor teacher has 2 different classes which rotate every other day. it's kinda weird. anyways, on wednesday there was a sub and the sub had never had this class before, and i didnt know any of the students yet either.
i was watching them work on a worksheet where they had to look at some pictures, and color the pictures of the things that started with the letter "s" in with their favorite color.
There was one boy though, who i noticed was crying ? so i walked over to him and explained to him what he was supposed to do, he nodded and the proceeded to color ALL of the pictures in.
i thought this was weird, but i know that im not supposed to feed him the answers so i let it go.
later they were working on another worksheet where they had to look at a picture of a thing that ended in "at" (cat, mat, bat, etc) and write the word next to the picture (there was a word bank for them to look at.)
and this little boy again was just kind of scribbling on the lines.
i went over to him and sat next to him and tried to talk to him and FINALLY he tried to talk to me and i realized HE DOESNT EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH. he's ukrainian and he speaks russian i think ?

anyways, this boy is really inspirational for me. once i realized he couldnt understand what i was saying to him, it was easier for me to be patient with him and try to explain better.

my question is, do any of you know how to speak russian ?

what are some basic words, (mostly just colors and numbers) that i can use to help him understand better ? i really just want to know like.. colors. and numbers. and other really really basic words.
this boy is so sweet. and hes new so he doesnt really have any friends. and he cries a lot because he cant understand and the sub didnt know he didnt speak english : ( it broke my heart. i cried once i got in my car because i felt so sorry for him : (

There are so many around where I live, but I would like to suprise them by understanding what they are saying (thick accent) and being able to communicate with them in their native tongue. (Ukrainian) I hear it is quite hard for american's to learn, but I can speak some Japanese/German (pretty hard too, lol).

I want to learn a second language one i can use and i am looking for a free site for emersion type of training in russian or ukrainian

Now there's this new girl in our school that can only speak russian/ukrainian, and I'd love to chat with her... but I can't read russian so I can't use translating sites... please help

Can any of you native Russians or Ukrainian tell what "Tak" means? I was ordering in a restaurant in Moscow and the waiter kept on saying "Tak". Was he saying "Uh huh" or "Okay"? And by the way, could you guys some Russian lessons? Thanks:)