Author Andrey Kurkov gives an insight into Ukraine

One of Ukraine's leading authors is Andrey Kurkov. He was born in Leningrad, modern day St Petersburg. His father was a Soviet test pilot, his mother a doctor.

Trained as a Japanese translator, Karkov was assigned military service during which he worked for the KGB. Later he served as a prison guard in Odessa on the Black Sea Coast.

His novels - such as Death and the Penguin - are full of black humour and post-Soviet realism....or post-Soviet surrealism. And he writes them all in Russian, not Ukrainian.

Based now in Kiev, he has an author's insight into both the Russian and the Ukrainian mindset.

So the BBC's Mark Whittaker asked him how people in his home city are feeling right now....