We can either refer to history or not. However, English grammar gives a clear answer to this question, i.e. the definite article is used only with countries 1) whose names include words like kingdom, states or republic: the United Kingdom, the United States, the People’s Republic of China; 2) which have plural nouns as their names: the Netherlands, the Philippines. As far as we can see it has no connection with Ukraine. So, dear English speakers, both native and non-native, please show at least some respect to my motherland and don’t put it in the same category with rivers, islands, seas, mountains etc.;)

The correct answer is "Ukraine", however many native English speakers erroneously think that "the Ukraine" is correct.

Hello, Steve. I'm not a native English speaker, but you are. However, I will try my best to answer this question according to what I have learned. As far as I know, Ukraine is right, and the Ukraine can be right in some context. USA and the U.S.A (both right) UK and the U.K. (both right) Ukraine correct. the Ukraine: Today's Ukraine is not THE Ukraine 100 years ago. (Here there should be a "the" before the second Ukraine because we are talking about another particular Ukraine in other time than today) Yesterday, I saw THEE(Note although it's spelled as "the", we pronounce it thee) Steve Jobs in my company. Here the before Steve Jobs means I'm talking about the very Steve that is very famous, instead of other Steves like you. So under some circumstances, we can use thee Ukraine to emphasize that we are talking about the very famous Ukraine. The third example is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19564663. Hope this helps.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, manifestations of Ukrainophobia aren't anything new in this world. So I'm not surprised at all. And I don't really give a damn how the name of my country is written in Dutch. The question was asked in English and about English. By the way, in German Ukraine is accompanied with the definite article exactly due to German grammar demands which suggest the same rule for all other names of countries being masculine or feminine (Ukraine is a feminine noun in German.) So what? Shall we use rules from other languages in English? And why German? Why not introducing rules from Arabic or Chinese, for example? Or maybe from Ukrainian? In Ukrainian Ukraine is written without any article. It's because Ukrainian hasn't articles. But it might have had them like Bulgarian which is also a Slavic language and has a suffix definite article. Nevertheless, in Bulgarian Ukraine is also used without the article. Therefore, I see no reason why France, Germany, Italy, Spain must be used without the article IN ENGLISH while Ukraine must be the Ukraine like the Thames. Is it worse than the rest of the countries? Isn't it a member of the same international organisations? Anyway, as I told before it's not only a matter of grammar but also of tact, good breeding and education.

It is 'Ukraine'. People often put 'the' in front of it because it begins with a similar sound to 'the USA, the UK' but this is a mistake.