Kateryna speaking Ukrainian, English, Russian

This video was recorded by Kateryna Smykovska in Kyiv, Ukraine. 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'. The history of its status within various empires has been a complicated. It was banned by the Russian Empire from 1804 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's workers have collaborated with international researchers to contribute to the Slavic Linguistic Atlas. The Ukrainian language remains partially mutually intelligible with Belarusian and Russian, although the vocabulary of Ukrainian speakers outside of Ukraine contains less Russian influence and more 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.