Our "Russian brothers " do not exactly have a record of having Ukrainian interests at heart. My great grandfather was indeed a serf, my parents barely escaped starvation and communist slavery thanks to the Soviets. I have reason to be skeptical about the good intentions of Russia.
Don't you think that more to do with communist ideology than some ethnic sentiment towards Ukrainians? Massive numbers of Russians were victims of communism too, and communism would have tried to do this to the whole world if it could.
The collectivization and starvation had nothing to do with the supposed Russian hostility to the Ukranians. It was rather the result of crazed Bolshevik ideology and desire of early Soviet leaders for rapid industralization.
Also many of the top Soviet leaders at that time were non-Russian. Starvation affected also Russia proper and Soviet leaders were hostile to Russian nationalists (many of who had to go into the exile together with the White Army).
Your great grandfather was alive in 1861? Well, considering that 150 years ago, most of Europe was still either practicing serfdom, with the exception of England, which was practicing slavery, just not on its own. As for the Soviets and starvation, lets not forget that 9 million Russian kulaks were equally starved by a Georgian named Stalin and his side kicks the Georgian Beria and Ukrainian Kruschov.