Maybe you're just too young to have seen it? The version without the "the" has only been in use for thirty years, and widespread use for less than that. I'd onl

Maybe you're just too young to have seen it? The version without the "the" has only been in use for thirty years, and widespread use for less than that. I'd only ever seen "the Ukraine" until about a decade ago, and being linguistically conservative I used it myself until recently. (Very recently.)