I have been following two writers on Medium: B Kean and Nadin Brzezinski, who are both knowledgeable on affairs of Ukraine and Russia. Their writings seem to be confirming my suspicions: a big part of the Russian psyche is to suppress other ethnic groups.

Had the Russian military been as effective as most western analysts had predicted, Russia would have conquered everything between Finland and Bulgaria. This is their "historical territory."

BTW, I am half Ukrainian. I visited my family in 2006, in Bukovina.