Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized yesterday, Friday, "Russia's treatment of Muslims in Crimea, during a Ramadan Iftar attended by Ukrainian Muslim leaders and ambassadors of Islamic countries."

He said before handing out awards to a number of Ukrainian Muslim soldiers: "Russia's attempt to enslave Ukraine... started exactly with the occupation of Crimea, exactly with the suppression of the freedom of Crimea and Ukraine's Crimean Tatars and its Muslims."

He also added: "Ukraine is grateful to the Muslims of our country and to all Muslims in the world who yearn like us for peace and protection from evil," continuing: "There is no alternative for Ukraine or the world except to end the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula... We will return to the Crimean Peninsula."

Zelensky also announced at a mosque on the outskirts of central Kyiv that Ukraine has started a new tradition of hosting an official Iftar.