I shouldn’t have put it in quotes, I did it to denote my personal paraphrasing after doing some light reading.
The usage was common in Soviet times, and the idea that Ukraine was a region and not a country was pushed by the Soviet Union — it is now considered gramatically incorrect.
Direct quotes from Wikipedia:
The use of “the Ukraine” has been officially deprecated by the Ukrainian government and many English-language media publications.
In 1993, the Ukrainian government explicitly requested that, in linguistic agreement with countries and not regions,[65] the Russian preposition в, v, be used instead of на, na,[66] and in 2012, the Ukrainian embassy in London further stated that it is politically and grammatically incorrect to use a definite article with Ukraine.
Well, the few Ukranians I’ve met refer to it as Ukraine — it is also listed in the countries declaration of independence and constitution as Ukraine, not the Ukraine.
Or are we suggesting that documents like these can’t be used as a sufficient reference? What would be good enough for you, should I survey every living Ukranian and ask them individually what they think?
I shouldn’t have put it in quotes, I did it to denote my personal paraphrasing after doing some light reading.
The usage was common in Soviet times, and the idea that Ukraine was a region and not a country was pushed by the Soviet Union — it is now considered gramatically incorrect.
Direct quotes from Wikipedia:
Edit: article link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine
Dang! I need to be more careful about speaking english how Ukrainian government tells me to!
Well, the few Ukranians I’ve met refer to it as Ukraine — it is also listed in the countries declaration of independence and constitution as Ukraine, not the Ukraine.
Or are we suggesting that documents like these can’t be used as a sufficient reference? What would be good enough for you, should I survey every living Ukranian and ask them individually what they think?
Look it up in The Uzhhorod English Dictionary!