Is It Ukraine Or The Ukraine?

     On August 24th 1991 the Ukraine officially declared its independence from the Soviet Union. On December 3rd 1991 the Associated Press stopped referring to it as, "the Ukraine," and started referring to it as, "Ukraine." As in Russia is a country and Ukraine is a country. When the Associated Press called the area Ukraine, it was as if it was a fully separate country from Russia with no long and interconnected history. Traditionally the Ukraine was referred to as the Ukraine and is still referred to as the Ukraine in many places on the planet.

     Christmas 1991 saw the complete dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the United States has had its heart set on stealing the Ukraine ever since the day the Soviet Union fell apart. A little over 22 years later the United States backed whichever government emerged after the Maidan Revolution as long as they wanted to join the West. Without any proof whatsoever I would assert that the United States may have agitated to cause the Maidan Revolution since we were fast to approach with offers to join the West as soon as it happened.

     Words matter, and the American aggression towards Russia started when the Associated Press dropped the definitive article, "the," from, "Ukraine." Saying the Ukraine is saying that it is a part of Russia, while saying Ukraine alone is an act of Western aggression. My American spell checker objects and underlines every time I write, "the Ukraine," trying to correct me, which is an act of microaggression towards Russia every time it does it.

     Kiev in the Ukraine is the center and origin of the Kievan Rus, the medieval ancestors of the modern Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples. They all have a shared ancestry that goes back more than a thousand years. While Moscow, St Petersburg, and Moscow again have been the capitals of Russia for over 850 years, and through 17 generations of czars and Catherine the Great, Russia still considers Kiev to be one of their old capitals.

     To the Russian people Belarus is, "White Russia," and the Ukraine is, "Little Russia," because they are all descended from the Kievan Rus. Until 30 years ago no one ever considered the Ukraine completely separate from Russia. Look at Belarus directly above it, they're completely in bed with Russia having no aspirations towards joining the West, and have even allowed Putin to move tactical nuclear weapons into Belarus pointing into the Ukrainian theater of combat.