No, the territory was in the hands of several nomadic tribes and then the Tatar Khanate of Krim, although there was a small slavic/greek/italian presence for a long time. After Muscovy conquered large parts of Ukraine from Lithuania (who claimed it as the new Kievan Rus) and later Poland, a process under Tsarina Elizabeth I saw the joint settlement by Russians, Ukrainians and several other European ethnic groups (germans, french, serbians) of the underpopulated lands back then known as the Wild Fields. The identity of modern Ukraine was not a unified project but a regional identity similar to Novgorod or Pskov. Ukrainian nationalism began when Poland and later Austria forced the orthodox population of western Ukraine to reconnect with the papacy and bind them to the state, the population was however still pro-russian before WWI.
No, the territory was in the hands of several nomadic tribes and then the Tatar Khanate of Krim, although there was a small slavic/greek/italian presence for a long time. After Muscovy conquered large parts of Ukraine from Lithuania (who claimed it as the new Kievan Rus) and later Poland, a process under Tsarina Elizabeth I saw the joint settlement by Russians, Ukrainians and several other European ethnic groups (germans, french, serbians) of the underpopulated lands back then known as the Wild Fields. The identity of modern Ukraine was not a unified project but a regional identity similar to Novgorod or Pskov. Ukrainian nationalism began when Poland and later Austria forced the orthodox population of western Ukraine to reconnect with the papacy and bind them to the state, the population was however still pro-russian before WWI.