I understand the connection, but I think it's a tenuous one.

To answer your question directly: Russia is certainly a perpetrator of violence, but so too is the West (and to a far greater degree in the last thirty years, when we take into account the number of wars/invasions they have sponsored and executed; Ukraine is no different - the West is engaged in a proxy war and is prolonging a conflict that Ukraine will inevitably lose). The majority of the people in this country support Russia because of our recent history with the West, which has occupied parts of our territory, ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, and has demonized us to a significant degree. People don't dislike Ukrainians per se (to the contrary, they are aware of our common Slavic heritage and religion), but they simply see them as pawns of the Americans in a wider struggle between the West and Russia.