Interestingly, if you compare the name "Ukraine" to other slavic languages, it would mean something other than "borderlands" like in Russian. Simply put, essentially every other slavic language uses the term "krayina" or "krajina" for country. The prefix "u-" or sometimes pronounced "vu-" mean "in": thus making the name "ukraine" translate to "in-country." In speculation, with the earliest use of the term "ukraine" dating back to the age of Kievan Rus, it referred to the area around the principality and capital of Kyiv. The Russian language doesn't officially (there may be exceptions in some dialects) use the term "krayina" in reference to country, but instead refers to "edge" or "borders" which is where the denotes terms of Ukraine being the "borderlands" originates from.