In Ukraine, Russian is seen as a language of inter-ethnic communication, and a minority language, under the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population according to a 2001 estimate from the World Factbook. 20% of school students receive their education primarily in Russian.

How many Ukrainians speak Russian natively as of 2004?