Putin offers truce if Ukraine exits Russian-claimed areas and drops NATO bid. Kyiv calls it 'absurd'
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Friday to 'immediately' order a ceasefire in Ukraine and begin negotiations if Kyiv started withdrawing troops from the four regions annexed by Moscow in 2022 and renounced plans to join NATO.
Ukraine: by 1670s, from Russian or Polish Ukraina, a specific use of ukraina "border, frontier," from Old Russian oukraina, from ou "by, at" + kraj region. The territory was so called because it was the borderland or 'frontier zone' of medieval Russia at the time of the Tatar invasion in the 13th century.
Ukraine was formerly also known as Little Russia, so called by contrast with Great Russia, when the medieval principality here became separated from 'mainstream' czarist Russia as a result of the Mongol invasion. [Room, 2006]
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=ukraine
the emphasis is mine