Many of us are still in doubt as to whether it is correct to say "in Ukraine" or "in Ukraine", so that it is literate and does not offend anyone. Indeed, the discussion between Russian and Ukrainian linguists has not subsided to this day. Russian philologists argue that it is correct to say "in Ukraine", while Ukrainian philologists refute this statement and believe that the only correct variant is "in Ukraine". We are not going to sort out who is right and who is to blame. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that there is a similar pattern in other Slavic languages, for example, in Polish.
What do you think is the correct way to say "on Slovakia" or "in Slovakia", "in Hungary" or "in Hungary" in Polish?
Linguists argue that the use of the preposition "in" in the spatial meaning is associated with the idea of a limited space (there are clear boundaries), and if the meaning is absent, we use the preposition "on".
Let's look at an example. Until the 60s of the 20th century, only the phrase "in Bohemia" was used in Polish, but after that "in Bohemia" began to appear in the speech of Poles. What happened? It turns out that during this period Czechoslovakia disintegrated. That is, until the sixties, Czechia and Slovakia were separate parts of a single whole. And each of them had no limited space.
However, time has reconciled the two prepositions and now it is acceptable to use both "in the Czech Republic" and "in the Czech Republic", but with Slovakia we use the preposition "in" (e.g. opening a company in the Czech Republic and Slovakia sounds like "Zakładanie firmy w Czechach i na Słowacji").
The situation is the same with Hungary. Until now, the mentioned territory, which was part of Austria-Hungary, can be perceived as a separate part of one state. Only this can explain why native speakers of Polish say "in Hungary". (For example, the title of an article from a travel website "Co zjeść na Węgrzech i w Budapeszcie?").
Note that the preposition "on" is also used when referring to Belarus. (For example, the title of the section on the website of the Belarusian Embassy "Po co jechać na Białoruś?"). This is probably due to the fact that part of the territories of modern Belarus belonged to Poland (Grodno region).
But when it comes to Germany, for example, Poles use only the preposition "in" (e.g. "Ośrodek Zdrowia w Niemcach").
That's how interesting it is to trace the influence of history on language.
