I'm an old fart who learned in primary school that The Ukraine, along with several other countries like The Netherlands, The Philippines or The Congo, was spelled with "the" for some reason. The geography teacher never told us why. It was just the way it was.

And yes, now I'm older, I realize there are several Philippine islands and several nether lands, and The Congo is an outdated - possibly colonial - short for Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that DR Congo is more acceptable today.

And yes, I know it's Ukraine now, since Ukraine gained its independence. But I always thought the switch from The Ukraine to Ukraine-sans-the was a cutesy to mark the event.

So, childhood habits being what they are, I regularly kept calling it The Ukraine, and I thought it didn't matter all that much.

But today, I found this article, and it really brought the point home of why it's a lot more important than it seems!

I figured I'd share, for other English-speaking old farts who were never taught why the Ukraine SSR was spelled out with "the" and why it shouldn't be anymore.

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[–] FarraigePlaisteach@piefed.social 23 points 4 hours ago

So basically when translated directly from Russian, "the" means that the place is no a sovereign place (eg, a hill). This is done deliberately to lull people into the idea that Ukraine is not an independent state. Ukraine has asked Russia to refrain from this, which it doesn't. But we don't have to collude. Fair enough.