Yes, it matters a lot with regard to the colonial history where Russian, Soviet, and Tsarist governments have tried many times to eliminate the local cultures and identities of both indigenous peoples and other Slavic neighbors like Belarusians and Ukrainians.
You have to be quite delusional or historically ignorant to think that current "civilized" Western nations didn't do the same in the Age of Sail or British India or colonizing Africa.
For some reason I don't see your posts condemning that in every other thread?
Government != people. Russia has a population of >140 million and not a democracy, you can’t accurately assume anything about a random civilian’s stance on Ukraine.
