Most Muslims in Ukraine are Crimean Tatars who are Indigenous to Crimea, the peninsula in southern Ukraine that Russia invaded and annexed in 2014. It set off the war that ramped up with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
Many Crimean Tatars fled the peninsula. Some left the country altogether. For those who stayed in Ukraine, this Ramadan, which ends this weekend, is their fourth in wartime. Many say the circumstances have only strengthened their faith.
Tamila Tasheva, a Crimean Tatar herself, and a member of Ukraine’s parliament, was in attendance at the recent Musafir meal.
She said that life has been challenging for her community since the conflict began.
“My parents and mostly my relatives and friends, they live under occupation, and honestly speaking, we don’t speak about politics because it’s dangerous,” Tasheva said. “They live in the territory [in] fear. If you speak something openly, you could [be arrested] by occupying authorities, that’s why mostly people sit silently.”
Tasheva is a strong advocate for Crimean Tatars, and for all Ukrainian Muslims who make up 1% of Ukraine’s roughly 40 million people.
Just a few days earlier, Tasheva helped organize an iftar event attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who expressed his “respect and gratitude to the Ukrainian Muslim community.”