My wife’s late father’s family are Ukrainians’s from the north of Ukraine and her mothers family were migrated by the soviets into Ukraine from Russia after WW2 and live in the south, she studied Ukrainian at school and her degree in Russian and has a masters in Philology, she was a teacher of both languages, in Dinepro. She says she’s never felt any amimosity from either side based on spoken language nor heard or it happening, not saying I don’t believe what’s happened to your friend, that’s terrible but I am surprised and your right issues like this should be addressed once this horrific conflict is resolved.