Russian speakers in Ukraine are Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine is multinational country. There are Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks living there as well. Carpathian Ruthenia was part of Czechoslovakia in interwar period and later became a part of Hungary during WWII to be returned in October 1944 back to Czechoslovakia for 8 months until Stalin kicked them out and the territory was ceded as price for liberation to USSR. I was in Lviv, Uzhorod, Beregovo, crossed over Carpathian mountains separating Hungarian basin from Central Ukraine. It is not ethnically homogenous country, yet it is Russia who got involved by military action and destroying this country. Since Putin ascent into the power if we include first war in Chechnya, more than 150,000 people died in Southern Russia, Caucasus Region and Ukraine for his dream. Three countries are directly occupied and invaded by Russia today. Russia threaten everyone on its border from Finland down to Poland to Baltic states to Romania. Russia will not stop there, and if not contained, they will be in the Western Europe in no time. Russia has hard time to acknowledge Ukraine as an independent county and nation. They do not understand that no Slavic country wants to be with Russia, no single of them have whatsoever desire to be allied with it. Maybe Serbs after 1999 NATO bombing, but I was in Yugoslavia under Tito and Serbs were looking upon Russians as poor relatives not to be trusted.
The issue for me is that Western Russian sympathizers do not see the dangers and apologize Russian extremism and aggression even at the cost of tens of thousands dead. How many countries and what is the death toll acceptable for these people.