Lot of BS made by foreigners. French and others.
How French may know ethnical map of Russian Empire in 1879? No ways. So it just a fake.
Same published in 1914 and so on.
But historical name still stand. Malorossiya is you say “Little” but RUSSIA not Ukraine. So it is a part of RUSSIA not Ukraine. So the ethnicity of main population also is Maloross not ukies.
I know that during commie time they was try to ukrainize those lands but as we see know the people there didn’t forget who they are. And they stand for RUSSIA not Ukraine today.
Please stop displaying your ignorance. Those maps were drawn based on data from Russian census records.