One small remark - there was no such thing as "Ukraine" nor 1000 years before Khazaria, nor diring Khazaria nor long after Khazaria. However there always was some outskirts of Rus/Russia everywhere on its borders. Word "outskirts" in ancient Russian written as "oukraina" ("ѹкраина" where "ѹ" is single letter of ancient russian alphabet). So, there was multiple ukraines in Russia, and none was something more than just outskirts. LARPers that find mentions of word "ѹкраина" in ancient Russian texts and pose them as a proof of existing of their "Ukraine" state are just lying directly to your face. As a kind of state Ukaine was first established by Lenin in 1922 as part of future USSR and it was assembled from Malorossia and Poland regions of Russian Empire.

Do you mind explaining the last point #3? I thought the name Ukraine is from about 12th century. Kyiv probably dates back to 600 AD, but it was a fisherman's village at that time, not a country.

The reason I'm asking, the early history of the people living in the territory now called Ukraine, and during the middle ages Khazaria, prior to the middle of the 6th century, is hidden in obscurity.