My wife is half-Ukrainian and half-Belarusian but was born an raised in Belarus. Nobody ever heard of Belarus when she would tell people where she was from. She just gave up after a while when asked just said "Yea, Russia." Now, through this war, she has rediscovered her Ukrainian roots. With memories of summers in Vinnytsia visiting her grandparents and Crimea at Young Pioneer Camp, she tells those tales to people and is firmly Ukrainian and now teaching at a school here in Kyiv. So, keep telling your story so people know.