A pejorative meaning of the word began to develop in the Viking Age, but is clearest in the medieval Icelandic sagas, written two or three centuries later â in the 1300s and 1400s.
The Ukrainian is a cyrillic alphabet, not latin, so it is similar to other Eastern Slavic alphabets (including Russian). While many letters are similar, most slavic languages have letters that are unique to their alphabets. The Russian alphabet includes such letters as Ñ, Ñ, Ñ, Ñ, the Ukranian one doesn't include these letters.
If your goal is to make an impression on locals I would definitely go with Ukrainian. At the moment, Russian language is associated with Russian invasion even though a lot of people still speak Russian. For me speaking Russian in Ukraine is like going to WWII occupied France (1) and trying to speak German with French people.