Name of Ukraine

The earliest known usage of the name Ukraine (Ukrainian: Україна, romanized: Ukraina [ʊkrɐˈjinɐ] ^ⓘ, Вкраїна, romanized: Vkraina [u̯krɐˈjinɐ]; Old East Slavic: Ѹкраина/Ꙋкраина, romanized: Oukraina [uˈkrɑjinɑ]) appears in the Hypatian Codex of c. 1425 under the year 1187 in reference to a part of the territory of Kievan Rus'.^[1] The use of "the Ukraine" is officially deprecated by the Ukrainian government and many English language media publications.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Ukraine is the official full name of the country, as stated in its declaration of independence and its constitution; there is no official alternative long name. From 1922 until 1991, Ukraine was the informal name of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union (annexed by Germany as Reichskommissariat Ukraine during 1941–1944). After the Russian Revolution in 1917–1921, there were the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian State, recognized in early 1918 as consisting of nine governorates of the former Russian Empire (without Taurida's Crimean Peninsula), plus Chelm and the southern part of Grodno Governorate.^[5]

^ Стлб. 653:8, 663:31-33. // ПСРЛ. — Т. 2. Ипатьевская летопись. — СПб., 1908. — Стлб. 652—673. — Ізборник.
^ "Ukraine or the Ukraine: Why do some country names have 'the'?". BBC News. 7 June 2012.
^ "Why Ukraine Isn't 'The Ukraine,' And Why That Matters Now". Business Insider. 9 December 2013.
^ Cite error: The named reference UKrW812991TU was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Magocsi, Paul R. (1985), Ukraine, a historical atlas, Matthews, Geoffrey J., University of Toronto Press, p. 21, ISBN 0-8020-3428-4, OCLC 13119858