Did a hundred thousand Jews recently arrive in Ukraine to each receive an allowance of 20,000 hryvnas ($547) from the government? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support the claim of a twofold increase in the Jewish population in Ukraine today. Instead, evidence points to a decline in the Jewish population in Ukraine since the Russian invasion over one year ago.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) by novostibelarusi on October 19, 2023, under the title (translated into English from Russian by Lead Stories staff ) "Revelation of a Ukrainian man." It starts:
I have just recently seen this news, I received this video, that more than 100,000 Jews have entered Ukraine. They will be paid 20,000 [hryvnas]
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Oct 23 06:10:57 2023 UTC)
The Jewish population in Ukraine has been on the decline since the Russian invasion, with a 32 percent increase in those going to Israel in the first two months of 2023 compared to the previous year, according to figures from the Jewish Agency for Israel published in the Jerusalem Post.
The World Jewish Congress estimated that Ukraine was home to 45,000 Jews in 2023, making it the fourth largest Jewish community in Europe, representing a fraction of what the claim says are new arrivals.
On October 9, 2023, a mobilization of 360,000 reservists was announced in Israel, causing a number of Israeli men to return to their homeland to support the army during the conflict with Hamas.
