Originally Posted by CyberSEO

The Ukraine means outskirts in Russian language - a territory at the border of the Empire.



Look at the map above. The orange one is what you call the Ukraine was before 1654. Everything around it was Russia. The Russian Empire. From 1654 to 1917 the Ukraine was called Malorrossia (Small Russia) and it is colored by orange and yellow. After 1917 if was called the Soviet Ukrainian Republic and was expanded by Stalin (mainly with annexed Polish territories), by Lenin and by Khrushchev with the territories from the Soviet Russian Republic.

So in fact, the Ukraine has always been a part of Russia. A part of Russian Empire and later a part of the Soviet Union.