That's because the two countries have been really close and claiming that there's no "actual" difference between the two countries, and since Russia was in charge of Ukraine's territory,multiple times through history and is smaller, people called it Little Russia. hope it helps.
As the political aspects of geography focus on ethnicity, religion and the difference among the large regional forces of the environment that play a crucial role in defining the political stability of the world nations across the national boundaries.
<u>Various other factors like the regional variation arise from the political inequalities among the member nations if the wold and the instability of the government that break up the integrity of the nations like in the case of African nations wars and violence caused by the political instability has to lead to the eventual breakup of the country in terms of economic growth and uneven development.</u>