Sure. But no one needed to “forget” the Ukrainian language – Russian has been the everyday language in Kiev for centuries. Ukrainian was spoken more in the far West, and in the borderlands by the Cossacks. On the contrary since independence, Ukrainians are trying to learn Ukrainian, but a lot of Ukrainians, including a number of famous Ukrainian politicians, can speak only Russian.
The events there of the last few years are tragic for the Ukrainians, and we are at least 50% at fault for it. Let’s hope that the whole thing gets unwound somehow. They should not let themselves be used by us to poke the Russians in the eye. It can’t end well for them (or for the Russians, or for us – the whole thing is a clusterfumble of stupidity).