My son had two tours in Afghanistan. His stopover was in Romania. They loved Americans and have become loyal allies. They hated the Russians. I knew a missionary that went to Ukraine, and they loved their independence from Russia. My wifes family on her mothers side were first generation Americans. They too hated the Russians, especially after the communists took over and Stalin had his purges. Even the Russian speaking Ukrainians hate the Russian government.
Russia has always felt landlocked. For centuries they have expanded to the Baltic and the Black Sea area to get port cities for access to the outside world before airplanes. The have fought the Fins, Sweds, Turks, Ukrainians, Poles, Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians over territory since the 800's. The Lithuanians, Poles, and Ukrainians were once a country or kingdom. Slowly over centuries they were divided up by the Russians, Turks, Prussians (which later became Germany), and the Austria-Hungarian empire. They all have their independence now and don't want to give it up.
