if you count ukraine's war as having started with the Maidan Color Revolution before that it was not so much as after that time, because that drove a lot of ethnic russians out of the country. i know there was a lot before that too, the place has long been a shithole. first time i met a ukrainian it was a woman who married my father and a year or so later she divorced him (to be fair, he is a dick, but she was a shifty conniving bitch also). that was about 2007 iirc.

i remember back in like 2006 also meeting a very pretty girl from Kazakhstan, working in a fruit and vegetable shop. probably ethnic russian or ukrainian based on what a supermodel she was. there is also lots of trouble there related to the mix of russian and kazakh ethnicities and politics. also i had a huge crush on a girl who was from St Petersburg for some years between 2007 and 2009, she was an orphan, both her parents had died, something involving organised crime i think.

i was going to try and migrate to Ukraine back around 2017 or so. i'm glad i didn't lol.