He is interested in Ruthenians - Russians don’t view Belarussians or Ukrainians as separate nations.
Ruthenians came late into the Soviet Union fry, in 1921, after the Polish-Russian-Ruthenian war, while Belorussia (White Russia) and Malorussia (Little Russia) were part of Imperial Russia since the 17th century.
Ruthenia (actual Western Ukraine) moved between Poland and the Hapsburg Empire for centuries. Contrary to Eastern Ukraine, they are not Ortodox but catholic or uniates. They were renamed ‘Ukrainians’, and the region ‘Ukraine’ in 1921. The name comes from the Russian word ‘krai’, which means ‘border’. ‘U-kraine’ is translated ‘on the border’
Lwov was a Polish town for most part of 19th century until 1918, with a large Jewish community. During the Polish-Ruthenian war in 1918, numerous massacres and pogroms took place from both sides and Jews in the middle took the brunt. They served as scape-goats to the belligerants.
A second wave of pogroms happened in 1941 in Poland occupied Lwov, when the nationalist Ukrainians allied themselves with nazi German invaders. 60,000 Jews were massacred by Einsatzgruppen with the help of Ukrainian nationalists and militia. In July 1941, one month after the start of the German offensive against the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian militia massacred 2000 Jews in three days. They called the massacre “Petliura days”.
The Western and Eastern Ukraine have almost nothing in common, except the Soviet Union period 1921-1991, neither language, culture, religion or traditions. “Ukraine” was a binational artificial republic, created by the Soviet administration and bureaucrats.