Thanks for your comment! Most sources on these issues in Western languages do seem to be from a more traditional Russian angle, so I appreciate the native expertise.

I realise trends like a literary Ukrainian language, or referring to the country as Ukraine, did not just come out of nowhere. But especially in complicated areas like language and nationalism, one has to draw generalisations somewhere, and I erred on the side of when these terms caught on in Europe more broadly. It is possible, to use a different example, that in a hundred years Scotland will be independent and Scots will be generally regarded as a separate language, but it would be only half the story from an international perspective to claim that it was always regarded as such because some share of the population of Lowland Scotland thought so going back centuries.

I take your point on German geography, but as a German speaker it never occurred to me until I read this comment that I might call France "das Frankreich." I believe this is a common perspective, which is why the movement to drop the die as a sign of respect for Ukraine's nationhood makes sense to Germans.

Again, I appreciate your perspective, and the light you've shed on the backgrounds of the issues I discussed in the article is valuable. Thanks for reading!