It’s a fair peeve, since it calls back to Soviet era bullshit.

But it’s gonna take a few more decades before it dies out now that Ukraine is the forefront of resistance, and is likely to be. I think it would have been over and done soon were it not for that. Only older gen-x and older were really using “the Ukraine” on a regular basis that I could tell. Us gen-xers were phasing it out overall just because it’s one less word to type.

But with the news being crammed full of both naming versions, it’s gonna drag it out