The separation of Russia and Ukraine puts a cat among the cultural pigeons. Who's whose? Is Mikhail Bulgakov a Russian or Ukrainian genius (Guardian). The same sort of question could be asked, I suppose, about Malevich, Kulik, or even Ilya Kabakov (born in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) – or indeed about a host of other artists born in, and trained in, the regions of the former Russian Empire. But, wherever an artist came from, usually we find that a particular city has a formative professional effect. Bulgakov became a major writer while living in Moscow, where he moved in 1921. If he's a Ukrainian writer, then maybe Picasso is a Spanish painter.