Not the same. At least pre vim 8. I don't know if this has changed.

https://geoff.greer.fm/2015/01/15/why-neovim-is-better-than-...

Example for python from the post

  import vim

  # Show current directory in Vim
  cwd = vim.eval('getcwd()')
  vim.command(':Explore %s | redraw' % cwd)

Technically it's python, but it's a shim.