Я, як і моя сестра, люблю чай.

Як і means like, just like, or the same as.

In Я, як і моя сестра, люблю чай, it links я and моя сестра and shows that the same statement is true for both of them.

So the idea is:

I, like my sister, love tea.

A useful way to remember it:

• як = as / like
• і = and

But together як і often works as a set phrase meaning just like or as does.

Because як і моя сестра is an inserted comment, not the main core of the sentence.

The basic sentence is:

Я люблю чай.
= I love tea.

Then як і моя сестра is added parenthetically:

Я, як і моя сестра, люблю чай.

This is similar to English:

I, like my sister, love tea.

The commas show that this middle part is extra information. In speech, you would usually hear a small pause around it.

Because моя сестра is understood as the subject of an implied clause.

The full idea is something like:

Я люблю чай, як і моя сестра [любить чай].

The verb in the second part is left out because it is obvious. Since моя сестра is effectively the subject of that understood part, it stays in the nominative case:

• моя сестра = nominative, my sister

It is not the object of люблю, so it is not мою сестру.

Because the subject is я = I.

The verb любити means to love / to like, and its present-tense forms include:

• я люблю = I love
• ти любиш = you love
• він/вона любить = he/she loves
• ми любимо = we love

So with я, you need люблю.

Even though моя сестра also appears in the sentence, it is part of the inserted comparison, not the main subject of the main clause.

Ukrainian often allows the subject pronoun to be omitted, because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

So you could say simply:

Люблю чай.
= I love tea.

But я is often included:

• for clarity
• for emphasis
• because the speaker wants to contrast or compare themselves with someone else

In this sentence, я is especially natural because the speaker is explicitly comparing themselves with моя сестра.

So Я, як і моя сестра, люблю чай sounds very natural.

It is the accusative case, because it is the direct object of люблю.

The verb любити normally takes the accusative:

• люблю чай
• люблю каву
• люблю музику

Why does чай look unchanged? Because for many inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative singular has the same form as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: чай
• accusative: чай

They look the same, but the function in the sentence is different.

Yes, Ukrainian word order is fairly flexible, though some versions sound more natural than others depending on emphasis.

The neutral version here is:

Я, як і моя сестра, люблю чай.

You could also hear:

Як і моя сестра, я люблю чай.

This puts more focus on the comparison first: Like my sister, I love tea.

The original version is very natural and balanced. Word order changes usually affect emphasis, not the core meaning.

You might hear як моя сестра in some contexts, but як і моя сестра is the better choice here.

Why? Because як і clearly means just like my sister / my sister too. It strongly signals that the same statement applies to both people.

Without і, як моя сестра can sometimes sound more like:

• in the way my sister does
• or a looser comparison

So in this sentence, if you mean I too love tea, the same as my sister, then як і моя сестра is the clearest and most natural wording.

Normally it means simply that both the speaker and the sister love tea.

That is the main point of як і моя сестра here: the same statement is true for both.

It usually does not focus on the manner or style of loving tea. In other words, it is not mainly about how the speaker loves tea; it is about the fact that the sister also does.

So the natural interpretation is:

My sister loves tea, and I do too.

Yes, it is natural and correct.

It sounds a little more structured than the very simplest everyday sentence, because of the inserted comparison, but it is absolutely normal Ukrainian.

In casual speech, someone might also say:

Я теж люблю чай.
= I also love tea.

But that version does not explicitly mention the sister. If you want to keep the comparison with the sister, your original sentence is a very good natural choice.