Was going to start a thread on this but was a little hazy on the details, so thanks for starting it! Turns out I woulda written pretty much what the OP had written so I guess I have a little bit of a grasp. Anyway have been following this closely as my family is largely Ukrainian (and Eastern European when not) in decent. I don't consider myself Ukrainian as it's been 4 generations I think (3 or 4, and my grandparents never really talked about it, even as I got older and asked questions) but we did always celebrate Ukrainian Christmas, had been to Ukrainian Catholic churches on occasions, Ukrainian decorations and mementos around the house, my cousins even did Ukrainian dancing for a while.
Was speaking to a 1st generation Ukrainian about this about 10 days ago, he moved when he was in his early teens I believe, and he mentioned that while it is a big mess and he hopes they are able to distance themselves from Russia, that Russia had slowly been gaining influence for a while and he was disappointed the people hadn't done more earlier. 'No one cares till it's too late,' were his exact words.
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