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>Also it’s just “Ukraine”, not “the Ukraine”. //

In en-gb "the Ukraine" is the established form; without "the" it sounds strange. There's no academy that dictates acceptable form for English language. Do you think it's unclear? Is there a good reason to be a language fascist on this point?

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Financial Times, The Times and the BBC all omit the “the”. So I’d say that this is the established form.

The “the Ukraine” form was used to refer to Ukrainian territory being part of the USSR or the Russian empire in the past. But the language seems to have evolved now to omit the article.

Also I don’t think I’m being a fascist about it at all.

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