Ukrainian culture and Russian culture are mostly the same (at least anywhere east of Galicia and west of Siberia), so it's not as if his points are suddenly moot.
This is splitting hairs, especially considering Ukraine still wasn't a country yet.
> The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was a Founding Member of the UN. On 24 August 1991, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic informed the UN that it had changed its name to Ukraine; see the Historical Information from the UN Treaty Collection.
Except the cultures are almost identical. Same religion, same food, same social norms and customs, same naming conventions, the two languages are mutually intelligible, most Ukrainians also speak Russian, hell even genetically they're almost the same (like I said, east of Galicia and west of Siberia).
I grew up in a Ukrainian-Canadian family, there was no animosity towards Russians whatsoever until the Orange Revolution and the fallout from that... They literally went to the same churches, did all the same things, it was objectively speaking the same culture.
This is splitting hairs, especially considering Ukraine still wasn't a country yet.