Never underestimate ethnic Ukrainians hatred for the Russians is all I can add.
Lived there for a number of years (Kiev and Odessa) and I've seen perfectly normal boys and girls turn into rabid maniacs almost frothing at the mouth when the subject turned to Russia, the transition would genuinely shock you. And this was just before the recent troubles.
Although I suspect many Russians can understand quite a bit of Ukrainian (I speak Russian and can understand without too much difficulty, and if I can as a non-native speaker of Russian, they can) it always amuses me when Russian TV always subtitles them, and my Russian colleagues swear they understand zilch.
Russia is successful much of the time I believe because they always play the long game, something seemingly absent in the West.
flash