A new survey finds that 28 percent of Ukrainians say they have some knowledge of Polish, yet another way in which Ukraine is a country in between. This is far less than know Russian; but it highlights the results of political changes in that part of the world in recent decades.
Conducted by a team of German, Polish and Ukrainian sociologists, the survey found that many do not know it well but can understand a great deal. At the same time, it found that in Poland, only 12 percent of Polish nationals say they know Ukrainian.
Knowledge of Polish in Ukraine, as one would expect, is greatest in the western portions of the latter country, a region that was under Polish control until World War II, and among older Ukrainians rather than younger ones. But the level of knowledge of Polish among the young is higher than many might expect.
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