Ukraine bans some Russian music and books as a global culture war grows.

As brutal battles rage in Ukraine, a parallel culture war is underway.

Ukraine’s Parliament on Sunday voted to ban the distribution of Russian books and the playing or performance of Russian music by post-Soviet-era artists.

The National Gallery in London has renamed Degas’s “Russian Dancers” as “Ukrainian dancers,” a salvo against the Russification of Ukrainian culture.

And in Canada, performances by the 20-year-old Russian pianist prodigy Alexander Malofeev, who has publicly condemned the invasion, were canceled in Vancouver and Montreal.

To some, the moves to cancel Russian culture, both high and low, are a fitting show of solidarity with Ukraine. But others counter that Russian artists shouldn’t be blamed for an invasion beyond their control and that ostracizing them only stokes nationalist sentiment in Russia. Read more

@nytimes