why are people calling it "the ukraine"
ukraine is independent
It's probably because the only time that anyone in America has heard it discussed (prior to this summer, with the Crimea incident), it was by people who remember it from the ussr days, and presumably also within the context of the USSR. As such, nobody has really ever stopped calling it "the ukraine," even though it's not the preferred term. Also, people are under the impression that "ukraine" means "borderland" (referring to the division between Europe and Russia), which may or may not be true, I dunno, I don't speak ukrainian.
