Ukrainians suffered much more.
Well, maybe if they respected the eastern territories i.e. Donetsk, Luhansk, etc. they wouldn't be getting obliterated right now and judensky wouldn't be on TV everyday crying uncle...
Fact is, every time a pro-EU candidate got into power, she/he'd clamp down on the pro-Russia people, and vice versa. They'd each take turns throwing each other in jail, banning their media outlets, ban their parties outright, etc. They'd always use the guise of bribery, corruption, graft, nepotism, etc. when everyone is doing the same damn thing regardless of pro-EU or pro-Russia.
They event went as far as banning public use of Russian - which like the all the other things would depend on how the political wind blew... when pro-Russians were in charge it would get repealed, then the pro-EU would reenact it, then pro-Russians repeal it, etc. etc.
Same old **** and I'm certain the average Ukrainians are tired of it. That's why even some of the Ukrainians that weren't hand picked for interviews and actually expressed how they felt stated that they're between a rock and a half place because either way they're screwed with a bad government, broke ass country, and no way out of continuing corruption.
So yes, Putin does have a valid point when he says Ukrainians were treating Russians like ****.
This same thing happened in Iraq with the Sunnis and Shia, it's no different now only with Russians and Ukranians. This is essentially a civil war and like a civil war there's proxies involved to various degrees.
At least if Ukraine does get split in half there will be long term peace - the western part will be Ukrainian and the eastern part Russian - just like the demographics and support base. In fact, that's what Putin is asking for to end this war - recognize Crimea and cede the eastern territories (i.e. Donetsk, Luhansk, etc.) and it'll all be over.
Yeah Putin is so evil because he's a dictator, he curtails free speech, jails/kills opposition figures, bans political parties, runs propaganda through state media and nationalizes outlets he doesn't like.. well guess what, judensky and the pro-EU people do all of the EXACT. SAME. THINGS!