Would you care to expand?

I've recently dropped the "the", because I understand some people object to it. Is this because "The Ukraine" referred to a geographical region, while "Ukraine" is the name of a country?

Mostly that. The theory is that using the definite article implies Ukraine is part of some larger region, which is a highly charged political statement. This Wikipedia article has more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Ukraine#English_defini....

Ah, thanks. Interesting to compare "The Argentine", the abandoning of which usage the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina explains as a mere fashion change.