Native Ukrainians have never accepted that demeaning slur "Little Russians". Terms like Little Russians and White Russians were invited by Tsarist regimes to eliminate any independent Identity in lands conquered from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as part of a policy to Russify them, and make them subsidiary to Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Native Ukrainians have generally never called themselves Little Russians, or felt they were subsidiary to Moscow. The first great East Slavic civilization did not germinate from Moscow. The first great East Slavic state was Kievan Rus, at a time when Moscow was little more than an insignificant backwater principality.
Ukrainians have never really wanted their history erased, or subsumed under the authority of Moscow.