How did Ukraine get its own kanji?


I just learned that Ukraine can be written as 烏克蘭, rather than the typical
katakana ウクライナ. Why was this country important enough in japanese politics or
culture to get kanji?




Oh, that's what you call [ateji](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/weird-kanji-
readings/). Almost every country gets
[that](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E5%90%8D%E3%81%AE%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E8%A1%A8%E8%A8%98%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7).
For example, Philippines = 比律賓. The only places that have real kanji names are
the ones in the
[漢字圏](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E5%9C%8F)




Oh, that's what you call [ateji](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/weird-kanji-
readings/). Almost every country gets
[that](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E5%90%8D%E3%81%AE%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E8%A1%A8%E8%A8%98%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7).
For example, Philippines = 比律賓. The only places that have real kanji names are
the ones in the
[漢字圏](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%BC%A2%E5%AD%97%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96%E5%9C%8F)

