DISINFO: Only a few thousand Muslims live in Ukraine, they do not need public holidays
SUMMARY
The Ukrainian authorities want to make Muslim holidays Qurban-Bayrami and Oraza Bayram public holidays. This is a strange decision because only a few thousand Muslims and Crimean Tatars live in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring Kremlin-led narrative about Crimean Tatars. Ukraine plans to give state status to the two main Muslim holidays: Oraza Bayram (Eid al-Fitr), a Muslim holiday after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and Qurban-Bayrami (Eid al-Adha), a Muslim holiday marking the end of Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. In total, roughly 1 million Muslims live in Ukraine, according to Sheikh Said Ismagilov, although half of them live in the Russian occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea. There are around 350 000 Crimean Tatars living in Crimea and 170 000 Muslims still living in Donbas. Ukraine is creating a working group to solve the problems of the Crimean Tatar people. The plans that President Volodymyr Zelenskуy announced on May 18 include the construction of houses for 500 apartments for displaced persons from the temporarily occupied Crimea, the creation of a hub on the administrative border with Crimea and the construction of a mosque for Muslims.