I know for an absolute fact from visiting and personal contact with people there, that the Carpatho-Russian region which was stolen by Stalin from Czechoslovakia in 1945 has NEVER wanted to be part of Ukraine, and has resisted as well as it could the Ukrainization from the Ukrainian Communist tyranny over the past 70 years.
The whole idea of the poor Ukrainians being subject to "Russification" is total hogwash. The opposite is the case.
As recently as last summer, I was told that the authorities in Kiev (which at time would still have been Yanukovich's government) had forbidden the use of Russian in newspaper and other publications, even though that is what the people there have always preferred. All I could find were in Ukrainian, which has been imposed on them. For one thing, this proves that Yanukovich never was a puppet of Russia and was never especially pro-Russian.
And remember this is the WESTERNMOST area of Ukraine.
Prepare for the hatred.
Funny to hear some Russian politicians, like Zhironovsky, supporting giving Western Ukraine back to Poland.
Yes.