I know, but it is almost a meme. Long before even 2014, Ukrainians formed a sizeable chunk of Russian internet. And one particular phenomenon were the demands by some Ukrainians to spell "в Украине" ("in Ukraine") instead of "на Украине" ("on Ukraine"), as is the norm in Russian language.

("в Украине" does not really have negative connotations, and sounds about as correct in Russian as "on Ukraine" sounds in Russian. Still, some Ukrainians are offended by this form and believe it to be a denigrating towards their independent country. Needless to say that after Crimea annexation such demands increased tenfold and, after the war started, a further tenfold)

There are other Slavic languages like Czech and Polish, which have exactly same spelling "na Ukraine", but Ukrainians somehow give them a pass. Coming to our issue, some Ukrainians also insist that Ukraine should be called THE Ukraine in English. I sometimes comply with this request.

They have asked to not be referred to as "the Ukraine".

This is all the justification that is required.

Respect them or don't. There is no try.

The ones I saw many times demanded "the". It seems you can't make everyone happy.