The sharp population rise from 1989 to 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 first 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.