Prior to 1944 (during WW2, from 1930s onwards), was Ukraine a part of Russia? particularly the Crimean Peninsula, and cities like Sevastopol. After doing a bit of research, it looks like it wasn't Ukrainian - it was under Soviet control. But was that area called Ukraine in the 1940s? Or was in under a Soviet name?
The name "Ukraine" has been used since the 16th-17th centuries if not earlier. During Soviet rule, most lands of the former Russian Empire were divided into "republics" (like states in the US but with borders based on locations of ethnic groups), and Ukraine was one such republic while Russia was another.
The western and southwestern borders of Ukraine were adjusted when the Soviet Union acquired new territory after WWII - this territory, including Lviv and the strip of land between Odessa and the Danube delta, was incorporated into Soviet Ukraine. Crimea, however, was indeed part of Soviet Russia before it was transferred to Soviet Ukraine in 1954.