Originally Posted by CyberSEO

Sid70 FYI. Almost all countries have changed their internal political status during the time (there were kingdoms, imperies, etc): France, Germany, Japan and many more. But they always been independent ones. The same applies to Russia, while Ukraine has always been just a part (a Western border) or Russia (окраина, Малая Русь, Малороссия, Украинская ССР). Now it's an independent country for 22 years and looks like a puzzle of different pieces. For example, Donbas was gifted by Lelin, Lviv was a part of Poland which was gifted to Ukraine by Stalin. Krym was gifted by Khrushchev etc (not even mention gifts of Russian tzars).

Here is a small historic map for you: