There was the same debacle in Poland between something happening "on Ukraine" vs "in Ukraine". It have no real difference, the former is archaic grammar irregularity for some currently or previously bordering countries, for example: Ukraine, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Slovakia.

But there was suddenly entire shitstorm in media about it, that it refuse the status of country, it is playing into Putin propaganda etc. etc. it was a mirror thing of the Kiev vs Kyiv debacle in English which we didn't have because pronouncing "Kyiv" is pretty hard for Poles so everyone is still using traditional name in Polish "Kijów". Also of course nobody changed it for the rest of abovementioned countries.

[–] anarcho_blinkenist@hexbear.net 25 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

it's ironic too because nobody who's complaining about that grammatical quirk with Kiev/Kyiv or "on Ukraine" vs "in Ukraine" seems to have an issue that the west-aligned countries calls Pridnestrovie the entirely different name "Transnistria" which actually does that thing of 'refusing the status of the country' because it just means "[the Moldovan territory] past the Dneister (river)"

and also its doubly so because Pridnestrovians don't want to be called that because it's literally the name the Romanian and German Nazis used for their occupation government when they did the Holocaust there (Transnistria Governorate)

[–] newacctidk@hexbear.net 8 points 1 month ago

I legit never knew they didn't like that name. That is all really valid

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 4 points 1 month ago

Well, the west doesn't recognize it as a country in the first place, so it's consistent.