So today I learned that for most of it's history, Ukraine was in a completely different part of Europe than we think of today (That is to say, more towards central-eastern Europe). On the other hand, the place we now think of as Ukraine was, historically speaking (Before Russian involvement), more Crimean (Specifically the Crimean Horde). Maybe it's touching a bit into current topical events, but why was it decided that Ukraine should occupy the area that's historically Crimea? Also, not to make any comments on current politics, why wasn't Crimea independent from the first place after the dissolution of the USSR?
I'm no expert so I don't have any answer, but could you clarify what you're talking about a little? If I look at some easy-to-find sources (wikipedia, etc.) on the history of Ukraine, I'm not seeing anything that looks like this:
Ukraine was in a completely different part of Europe than we think of today (That is to say, more towards central-eastern Europe)
Borders have changed a bit of course, but everything I saw seemed to be situated around the western/central regions of modern Ukraine. Maybe you have a map illustrating what you mean?
This might just be me not finding good sources, of course - I've not spent so long looking, and most searches for "historical Ukraine" and the like are just full of information about historical sites within Ukraine...