It is important to note that we still say “The Netherlands” and “The Philippines” and no one says it is politically incorrect. Putting the definite article “the” in front of a countable proper noun is simply correct in the English language.
The Netherlands are a countable number of lands in the nether, and the Philippines are a countable number of islands of Philipp.
We used to say “The Ukraine” because the word “Ukraine” means “Borderland” or “Borderlands.” So, the definitely article “the” is always appropriate.
Removing the word “the” is some kind of weird politically correct language manipulation strategy which serves no necessary purpose, other than to drive a rift between people who want to use the established linguistics and people who want to signal their “progressive” ideals by using neo-linguistics.
Basically, referring to The Ukraine as “Ukraine” is like using tranny pronouns.
I’m not doing it.