It is not "the Ukraine." Please check the Globe and Mail style manual. Ukraine is a country, not a region, so the use of the definitive article "the" is inappropriate. On the other hand, it is "the" Russian Federation, since that state is multinational, multilingual and (in fact) imperial in its pretensions, particularly under the "leadership" of the KGB man in the Kremlin. Or to put it more simply, Ukraine is a country, the Russian Federation is not. They really should devolve (they will in due course).