The sharp population rise from 1989-2001 , where the Kurdish population augmented from 238 to 2,088 was caused by the Spitak earthquake which shook the Kurdish areas of Armenia in 1988 . Furthermore , the fall of the Soviet Union facilitated the migration of Kurds from the former Soviet Union to Ukraine . Most of these Kurds were from the Yezidi minority . Another wave of refugees came to Ukraine as a consequence of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1993 , which occurred in the region which was historically known as Red Kurdistan . This wave of migration included both Muslim and Yezidi Kurds . In the 1989 Soviet Census , out of the 238 ethnic Kurds in Ukraine , 132 of them ( 55.5 % ) had Kurdish as first language , while 77 ( 32.3 % ) had Russian and 13 ( 5.5 % ) had Ukrainian . The numbers for Kurdish and Ukrainian rose to 56 % and 11 % respectively in 2001
Spitak earthquake
1988 Armenian earthquake
Kurds in Ukraine