The whole nazi thing is something many in the West may not understand, origin-wise. The population of Ukraine can be thought of as analogous to West/East Germany. There is a large population with strong Russian ties, and a large population with strong German ties, especially WW2 Germany. Not really nazi Germany, but more sympathetic to Germany than to Russia. In part, of course, because of the great famine.
Hot Ukrainian ex-coworker's mom, like my mom, spent time in a German refuge camp. Not long after I met her, I was shocked to hear her cussing at the copy machine at work. In German. I started to learn a bit more about Western Ukraine's historical ties to Germany. Especially related to Russia. The older people in her family spoke about Russia the same way the people of my parent's generation did. A favorite derogatory epithet of my dad's generation was "dreckiger Russe" (dirty Russian) or "schwartzer Russe" (black Russian)*. This goes back some time, historically, and part of Ukraine is part of that. Older members of HUC's family hate the Ruskies with a passion and they all think krauts are the bomb.
I've actually been surprised that much of Eastern Ukraine hasn't thrown flowers at the Russians instead of bullets, given most of the anti-Russian population has always been in the West.
*Not SJW black, but a historical designator:
https://belarus-travel.com/theconcept-of-whiterussia/