Can you give the SPECIFIC examples of this Russian opression against the Ukrainians? Exploatation of serfs by the nobility does not count as it took place all over the Russia and was not based on Ukrainian/Russian origin.
hell the Russians called us " malo- rus", "little Russians". Pretty much denied us our individual national identity.
I come from Malo-Polska (Little Poland) and I see nothing offensive about. BTW, one can see the terms like Greater Boston or Greater Greece (colonies) as less prestigious than Boston proper or Little Greece.
Present Great Russia derives her origins from Kievan Rus (as well as from Novgorod at the Baltic Sea). Do you think that Ukraine does not share in the Rus heritage?
Pray tell when that identity actually existed? Most of Ukraine was not even populated by Slavs until the last 300 years and it was done so by Russians and Russian Cossaks. Azov was captured by Cossaks that asked the Tsars to come annex it.