Here is an interesting statement by a Maxim Goryachev, who may or may not be the same social activisit I know, need to check, but it's food for thought.

I don't like salo (pig lard, the national Ukrainian delicacy), I don't wear an embroidered shirt and don't know the words to the Ukrainian national anthem.

I haven't swam across the Dnepr and can't dance the hopak (best known of all Ukrainian dances, with lots of jumping). There is no copy of "Kobzar" (a poem by Taras Shevchenko, one of the foremost nationalists) on my desk and the walls are not lined with rushnyks (ritual, embroiedered towels). My blood is red, not blue and yellow.
The three most important words I said in Russian. Am I Ukrainian?

I'm a dedicated fan of "Dynamo" (footie club), a fan of Klichko and Klochkova (the former a boxer, the latter, a swimmer).

I saw this land from the window of a Boeing, but I returned. I don't need neon cities and silicone women. I don't want to live there where the streets are nameless and the people have no patronymics.
I'll remain here. Here the fires which swept the land have barely gone out and the names of our forefathers are still visible on the memorial plaques (I.E. WW2 wasn't too far back).
Here girls read in the subway and write verses in the margins of textbooks. On the money here are poets, not presidents.
Here people have a good sense of humour and smile openly, sincerely.
I'm Ukrainian.

I love the narrow streets of Lvov and the avenues in Kharkov. Easy-going Odessa, business-like Donetsk and the legendary Poltava, they have all become dear to me.

I don't trust patriots on podiums, I believe in the man in the trenches.
I believe in this land- I trust this air, these mountains, these people, who keep their word.
I love the sound my feet make against the tiles on Khreshatik st (the central street of Kiev), the creaking of the snow in the Carpathians and the rustling of the waves in the Crimea.
I will never forget the lullabies I've heard, or the kisses I received on Andreevsky st.

And what is more, I frequently dream about the vast blue skies and sunflower fields. My son will be born here. I'm Ukrainian!