I dare to guess that most people in the USA could not find Ukraine on a map, and don't know anything about it. Lampada probably knows about that. It doesn't help that Ukraine only became independant less than 20 years ago.

I had the wrong view of Ukraine too and I was so certain I knew about it that I didn't even bother to read up properly before I went there. For example about the language. My incorrect view was that Ukrainians were just a different flavour of Russians. I did not know how passionate Ukrainians are about their language and unique culture.

A lot of people in the UK know NOTHING about Ukraine either.

I called my bank in the UK from Belarus, and person I spoke with had never heard of Belarus in her life and assumed it was a non-European country.

BUT, they have all seen lots of films where Russians are bad guys, and played many games about wars with Russia or the USSR. It's practically a mantra.

English speaking news don't have to say much at all. Just mumble a bit about "aggressiveness", lack of "human rights", dictatorship and Soviet union legacy.

And thanks to all the conditioning from films, TV and games the person will think "damned Russian", "F-ing commies" or "we should just nuke them and be done with it" or something like that.