I'm not quite convinced history repeats itself 1:1 like this...
If you would read some Ukrainian papers, watch some Ukrainian television, and immerse yourself a bit in their cultural scene - you would quickly see they're actually quite paranoid about the fact that they may be living through "Round 4" of partition.
That is, it's not just Bobko's wishful thinking.
The same symptoms are slowly emerging that "sunk" their independence ship in the past... so there's some reason for them to be paranoid.
The closest parallel to what is happening in Ukraine now, is what was happening to them in their last period of independence 1917-1921. Throughout the first half of that period, Imperial Germany was their main sponsor. Then Pilsudski's Poland and the countries of the Little Entente.
What sunk them then, was:
1) Unfortunate dictatorial tendencies from Petliura and Skoropadsky (Hello Zelensky and Yermak).
2) Constant political infighting triggered by turf wars over who controls the flows of money Western governments were donating to support the fight against the Bolsheviks.
3) An alienated populace that viewed their leaders as puppets in the pocket of Western capital. This manifested in a nearly total refusal to mobilize and pay taxes.
4) Clashes between Western and Eastern Ukrainians, who came from completely orthogonal cultural origins. Moscow played on these differences expertly, and to such an extent, that both sides would send embassies to Moscow with offers of betrayal in exchange for support.
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Where there are two Ukrainians - there are three Hetmans.
This has always been their weakness, even as they call us slaves. Our slavishness has held our great country together, while their rowdy and freedom loving ways have always led them to doom.