There should be an English, non Cyrillic version of that map, it gives a background that just isn't accessible to Euros and Americans.

Not that it means that Ukraine isn't a legitimate country, but it gives a bit of perspective to the situation. From an American perspective, Ukraine is as legitimate and old as their country..

But in the European perspective, it's correct that it doesn't exactly have an independent history that's going to resonate... (And nothing wrong with that, there are many areas like that. Not to say that this can't change, but things are not exactly looking promising, at least not with the current borders and based on events over the last 20 years)

Personally I knew about Ukraine in the USSR setting, because it was taught in school. Plenty actually, but a lot of it is totally irrelevant now, to do with Soviet industries and economy. Partisans, kolkhozes, mining and local culture and costumes.... I also knew that the Vikings travelled on the rivers in that region and liked the area, and that Sweden was there a few hundred years ago and fought Russia on and and off for a while (although all the Swedish empire stuff was downplayed in those days, so I am really a bit sketchy on that) I believed all that took place on Russian soil. Poltava, even Bender etc. Plus I knew what Kiev, Crimea and Odessa looked like from postcards and films.
Other than that, nothing!

I paid ZERO attention when the USSR disintegrated and it was only several years later that I looked at a newly drawn map of Europe and realised that Ukraine and Belarus were independent. There were so many new countries and so much happenening, I just didn't notice. I was well aware of the Baltics being independent, and I heard about Central Asia because that was discussed at university. But in my ignorance, I had perceived BY and UA as just a flavour of Russia, not potential independent countries. Feels stupid now that I have been there and really respect these countries.

I really had NO understanding of the Russian relationship with Ukraine. Modern or historical. Everything I know, I've learnt here as an adult, by watching TV recently or checking the odd Wiki article. I knew nothing about "Holodomor" and things of that nature.

I didn't know the borders had changed over time and I didn't know how many Ukrainians has welcomed the Nazis -all I ever heard of were the partisans, and how badly locals had been treated by the Nazis who were crueller in the USSR than anywhere else.. I also did not know what the language situation was until I joined MR. I was aware of Ukrainian language but I had believed it was a dialect of Russian and not much spoken anymore. (sorry about that!)

However I thought it was nice for Ukraine to finally be independent. I loved it when I was there on holiday. To me, it felt quite different from Russia.

But right now, my impression is that Ukraine is probably "larger" than it ought to be in terms of borders. If you are going to have a mulicultural, multi language country, then it needs to be actively promoted by the state, like in Finland. People need to be encouraged to see it as something positive. Not to be at each others throat.