In recent years, disputes about how to correctly pronounce "to Ukraine" or "to Ukraine" have not abated. Russians - and many Ukrainians too - are accustomed to the first option, but Ukrainian philologists insist that the second is correct.
Opinion of Russian linguists
In 2014, Vladimir Putin, giving a speech in the State Duma, used the phrase “in Ukraine”. Other prominent personalities have also used - and still use - this option.
Commented on the Russian-Ukrainian disputes on this topic, a Russian linguist, professor and rector of the State. IRYA them. A. S. Pushkin Yuri Prokhorov. According to the scientist, all of them are the result of the translation of linguistic issues into the political plane. The use of the phrase "to Ukraine" has developed historically long ago. Even Taras Shevchenko, a renowned singer and propagandist of the Ukrainian national idea, used him in his "Precepts":
I will die, then praise
On my grave
In the middle of the wide step
Promotional video:
On Ukraine miles …"
Russian linguists believe that this option is correct from the point of view of grammar and syntax of the Russian language. The norm is fixed in the textbook "Grammatical correctness of Russian speech" for 2001, edited by L. K. Graudina, L. P. Katlinskaya and V. A. Itskovich.
Position of the Ukrainian side
The Ukrainian authorities do not agree with such arguments. In 1993, at the state level, the option “to Ukraine” was approved as the only correct one (by analogy with the phrases “to Russia”, “to Germany”, “to the Czech Republic”, etc.). Thus, the new country linguistically secured its independent territorial status. Ukraine no longer wants to be “outskirts”, “to” which you can leave and “from” which you can return.
Many Russian classics agree with this position. L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov and A. S. Pushkin wrote in their great works “to Ukraine”. This variant can be found in War and Peace, Pushkin's Poltava, Chekhov's letters to the playwright Ivan Leontiev.
Despite the fact that in Russian textbooks only the form with the preposition "on" is still recognized as legitimate, some progress on the way of resolving the complex issue has been outlined for a long time. In 2009, the Institute of the Russian Language named after VV Vinogradova admitted that since 1993 it is preferable and correct to write “to Ukraine” in official documents of state significance. At the same time, in oral speech, Russians have full historical right to use the option to which they are accustomed.
