Some of the posters here are even afraid to read Magocsi's History of Ukraine. It is a very excellent book. I might add. According to Yash we do not count since we make up only .1 of the Ukrainians in the world. So we should shut up.
Complexity is the nature of Ukrainian history.
Regionalism is very important in Ukraine as are regional ideas and approaches to identity. The simpler it all seems. I work with a Ukrainian woman from Kyiv. She will speak to me in Ukrainian but as soon as there is a Russian around she will switch to Russian. If another Ukrainian person comes to the clinic she will speak Russian to them even if they are from Lviv.