Friends you say? Okay, but only after they give up a stupid idea of 'gathering the Russian lands' they have been embracing since Ivan III.
What is 'rjaschenka'? Ryazhanka maybe?
You´re one people, whether the political reality mirrors that or not. And yes, I mean the Russian-Ukrainian milk drink.
Yes, we have common roots and close languages and culture. But we are very different in political mentality. If you want to try to understand it, begin with the differences between so called South Western and North Eastern Rus.
So? What is your point?
Russians are Russians. "Great Russia" (Russian Federation), "Small Russia"/"Borderland" (Ukraine), " White Russia" (Belarus), "Black Russia" (Poland and Lithuania) and so on... All of them are the same.
"The Gathering of Russian lands", you say? What exactly do you do with Donbass and Crimea? Don't you want to return them? Don't you want to return Cuban and Belgorod after Donbass and Crimea? And Moscow, Siberia, Far East and Alaska?
I don't see any reason to waste American lifes and resourses just to help transfer the Russian capital from Moscow to Saint-Petersburg, Rostov, Kiev, Minsk or even Warsaw. It will change nothing.