Well, a single person is going too far. Obviously there is diversity of thought throughout various cities.

But having said that, yes I specifically mentioned Chernivtsi because it is in Western Ukraine and to show that I am acquainted with people who live there. Cities like Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi and Lviv are historically Polish Galicia, they really have had quite anti-Russian sentiment for a very long time.

Even during Soviet times, the USA tried to reach them with Radio Liberty —- started by the CIA (bet you didn’t know that). People living there are the ones who hope the most that USA will come and help them escape having to deal with “the Russian-speaking world”. Many of them don’t like the Eastern Ukrainians, calling them “katsapy” as far back as 70 years ago. And the Russians — well, they are “Muscovites” while Ukrainians are the “true Russians” in their view.

Again, this is not everyone but a prevailing sentiment. Just like with sunnis and shiites and kurds, it is a very convenient tinderbox for an outside power (the US, say) to come in and play one side against the other, just as they have done in many other countries. (And KGB used to do as well, eg with Palestinians in Israel/Jordan etc.) It is a playbook that predates the US by millennia. In the Bible, the Egyptians worried about Jews becoming numerous and siding with their enemies etc. Anyway, Wikipedia has a textbook entry on “proxy war” that literally describes it all: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_war

A lot of far-right groups enjoyed the most support in Western Ukraine. Svoboda, a far-right nationalist party, got 38% of the vote in some regions, in 2012 — before ANY Russian invasions at all. They have been the lynchpin on which the US staked its hopes when it sent John McCain and others to foment a revolution:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=93eyhO8VTdg

The BBC did a nice documentary on this back when it was still allowed to point out the truth:

2014: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5SBo0akeDMY

2015: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sEKQsnRGv7s

and PBS had a very in-depth special about the two very different sides of Ukraine:

2014: https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-battle-ukraine/

You can see very clearly a country divided, between the anti-Russian and pro-Russian regions. But also, very importantly, between young and old.

A generation that grew up since 1991 feels Ukraine is their COUNTRY, with a flag, and many are willing to fight and kill/die for their national identity, and for national territory.

By contrast, the generation that grew up in the USSR remembers what it’s like to have the “brotherhood of nations”, and being able to freely travel and have families across Republics, the way that a resident of NY or California regards themselves today as a citizen of USA, a federation.

But if California or Texas ever split off, you can bet your butt that a new generation might very well grow up ready to die for the Republic of California dlag with the Bear, or the Lone Star, against the USA and teach in the schools all the grievances about how USA took the land from Mexico, and oppressed spanish-speaking peoples (after they genocided native Americans and enslaved Africans of course).

You can always play on resentments and nationalist movements. That’s why Turkey is so worried about the PKK, for instance, or Israel was worried about PLO and Hamas, or Spain about Catalonia, the list goes on. An outside power coming in to destabilize the region does exactly what USA has done — and it almost always leads to misery for the regular people who live there. Iran did it in Yemen, and now the people are starving for a decade. We have started to do it now in Taiwan.