Using "the Ukraine" is heavily discouraged, please use Ukraine instead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Etymology_and_orthogra...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Etymology_and_orthogra...
I think I heard the variant without article in German, as well, but I'm not aware of a similar discouragement.
The German Wikipedia seems not to have anything on it, as well.