nestork wrote:

My mother is Ukrainian. My father was born in Ukraine.

All four of my great grandparents on my father's side were born in
Ukraine (the western part) but only two emigrated to Canada after WW1.
My father's mother was thus born in Canada. My father's father was born
in Ukraine and also emigrated to Canada well before WW2.

On my mother's side, her parents were Slovak and I think also at least
half of her grandparents, and they (my grandparents and at least two
great grandparents) also emigrated to Canada before WW2.

I visited Moscow and Kiev and Czechoslovakia for a month back in 1978 as
a teenager during a family trip. We brought lots of consumer goods to
give away, and I felt pretty cool being around other kids there -
wearing my Levi blue jeans.

But growing up, I never got a clear sense of Ukraine in terms of east vs
west, or "true Ukrainian" vs Russian-Ukrainian. Same goes for my dad.