Zhovkva

Thanks for bringing Zhovkva to my attention. Always looking for new places. I will be returning to Ukraine in a few months and will try and add it to the list.

I could be a bit off base, but I think the "the" was dropped do help erase Ukraine's relevance to Russia. The word can be interpreted to men "border land" as in "the" border land of the Soviet Union. Sort like "The" Valley is a place on the Rio Grand in Texas.
When they gained their freedom from Russia they were pretty explicit in wishing the "the" be dropped. But a lot of the same people that make an issue of this still use the Russian spellings for the cities in Ukraine; Kiev for instance.

If this sort of thing interest you, read about Kyivan Rus, and the origins of Russia.