Not a Ukrainian but I know a good few. The language is taught at schools so you if you’re not educated in the Soviet Union you will know it. Whether you choose to use it is a different matter. And data would suggest that the usage is on the rise.

I've been in Ukraine last year and one thing I noticed that while people speak in Russian or in a dialect in private, they instantly switch to Ukrainian in public, like when ordering an ice cream from the street stall. They then switch back among them. It's fascinating how things changed in a few years.

That what I mean above, most people don't speak "modern Ukrainian". Even the language itself drastically changed on TV just in years.

> if you’re not educated in the Soviet Union you will know it

My grandparents and parents and siblings all learned Ukrainian in school during Soviet times. This is in what now would be considered a predominantly Russian-speaking part of Ukraine btw.

Ukrainians should pray to USSR because of active Stalin times ukrainization.

If only there were some way of fact checking such a claim . . .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Ukraine