Ukraine vs “The Ukraine”.

Culture Drives History. Here’s the Cultural Context Behind the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

The following is an excerpt from my chapter on Ukraine from my book, “The Global Etiquette Guide to Europe”, published in the early 2000’s by John Wiley & Sons:

“The country is called ‘Ukraine’ (or as other Europeans refer to it, ‘Ukrainia’). It is NOT “The Ukraine”. To refer to the country as “the Ukraine” demeans the independent status of the country, making it sound more like a geographic section of greater Russia, which it most definitely is not. The word “Ukraine” in the Ukrainian language (which is not Russian) means “Borderland”, and in many ways, Ukraine has stood as the European border between Europe and Asia for both Europeans (mainly Poles and Lithuanians in the fourteenth century) and Asians (first the Mongols in the twelfth century, later the Turks in the fifteenth century). Ukrainians are definitely not Russians, and will object to any attempt to conflate the two (although there are many Russians living in Ukraine, mainly in the east of the country, and they do view themselves as Russian Ukrainians). Ukrainians see themselves as members of a distinct European culture in the third largest country in Europe.

The topography of the country has played a major role in its history, which, in turn, has played a major role in defining its culture. For…