My Grandfather was born in Kiev in the 1890s but considered himself Russian. His family was attacked in the Bolshevik Revolution. (And as a kid sat through many, many Russian Orthodox masses! UGH!)
Are there Ukrainian/ Russian people who would rather be part of Russia than Ukraine (i.e. Crimea)?
As I understand it, you can draw a line through Zhitomir and Vinnista and everything to the right if that is basically Russian. To the left you have Volhynia, Galicia, Bucovina and Transcarpathia, which all at certain times were a part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, Austria Hungary and Romania. The politics of these areas are far different than the rest. That they have no love for Russia is clear. The coup the US engineered was certain to out people from these areas in charge.