March 26, 2021
12:08 a.m.
The underlying problem here is any Ubuntu-based software that is still using the long-obsolescent zone.tab file, or that cannot handle more than one country code in column 1 of the zone1970.tab file. You didn't mention what software was involved, but whatever it is I suggest fixing it so that your users' problems go away. Any zone.tab-reading software should be upgraded anyway (zone.tab has been obsolescent since tzdb 2014f), and you can use this Crimea issue to motivate any stragglers. Alternatively, you could install the patch that you proposed into Ubuntu downstream, and the Ubuntu developers could then deal with this political dispute's fallout in an Ubuntu-specific way. Your call.