The verbal noun constitutes a hybrid, semantically flexible, and heterogeneous class of words in the languages under study. The partial reduction of verbal semantic properties and the acquisition of nominal ones determine its intermediate position between the verb and the noun. Moreover, this lexical category is internally heterogeneous: uniformity is absent both within a single language and in cross-linguistic comparison. The degree of semantic divergence between the verb and the noun derived from it, as well as the unpredictability of deverbal derivation outcomes in Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish, varies and increases “from west to east” (Polish → Ukrainian → Russian). Simultaneously, the ability of verbal nouns to retain and convey the aspectual characteristics of the verbal type decreases accordingly. From west to east, the absolute number of verbal nouns decreases significantly — both in the lexicon and in actual usage; the number of their aspectual pairs declines; and their aspectual specificity is lost and becomes blurred; consequently, the capacity of the verbal noun to function as a distinct tool of expressing particular aspectual semantics is reduced.