[vogre]

>No one sane is expecting a war between them any time soon.

Ukraine and Russia were same country like almost forever. No one sane was expecting a war between them.

Don't underestimate ability of polititians to screw things up.

[jacquesm]

Ukraine was under Russian dominion like almost forever, but that didn't make it a part of Russia. If it had been then Russians would not distinguish between 'Russians' and 'little Russians' and other (far worse) terms.

[throwawaymaths]

not to forget that at one point muscovy was under ukraininian (Rus-ian) dominion.

[thriftwy]

Germans do distinguish between Prussian Germans and Bavarian Germans. Nevertheless it's the same country.

Various types of Germans also did have a large number of wars agains one another.

Russian position is indeed that Ukrainian claims on the statehood in 1991 or even 2014 borders are absolutely bogus.

Personally, I also find it hard to respect the immutability of international borders that are younger than I am.

[attentive]

no, they weren't. It was occupied by russia/soviet empire.