Regarding the shelling of Kamianska Sich by Russian troops

Regarding the shelling of Kamianska Sich by Russian troops

On February 1, Russian public channels released a video depicting the cynical shelling by Russian troops of the location of one of the Zaporozhzhia Siches, a historical monument of national significance, known as Kamianska Sich, which includes the cemetery of the Zaporozhzhia Cossacks and the grave of kosh otaman Kost Hordiienko. This location is an affiliate of the Khortytsia National Reserve in the Kherson region.

As far as we can see in the video, the hits were in the area where the Sich’s economic suburb was located, where archaeologists of the Khortytsia National Reserve have been conducting reconnaissance and research work for many years. There are still unexplored production facilities of the iron-working and pottery complex of the 1st half of the 18th century. Also, most likely, the hit occurred near the lapidary, where stone monuments (grain grinders, cannons, etc.) are collected, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the cross from the grave of the kosh otaman Kost Hordiienko and the entrance gate of the Sich, built in 2009.

Kamianska Sich is one of three Siches that were accessible to scholars and the public before the full-scale invasion. All the others were flooded. All this is important to us, Ukrainians, descendants of the Zaporozhzhia Cossacks because it was here in 1710 that the Sich Cossacks and Pylyp Orlyk signed the “Treaty and Resolutions between Hetman Orlyk and the Zaporozhzhia Army,” which essentially became the first Constitution of Ukraine. The document defined the democratic principles of relations between the government, i.e. the Cossack officers, and those who elected them.  

The preamble emphasized that the Moscow state was trying to destroy military rights and liberties, and to impose a nonfree yoke on “the free Cossack people, whom it had never conquered.” It was also noted that the Crimean Khanate is an ally, not a suzerain, for the Cossacks.

Kost Hordiienko was the kosh otaman of the Kamianska Sich, who was elected to this position 12 times. According to Dmytro Yavornytskyi, Hordiienko was a native of Poltava region. He studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla College and received an excellent education. His contemporaries recall his welcoming speech to Charles XII, delivered in impeccable Latin. He was assigned to the Platnyrivskyi kurin in the Sich.

К. Hordienko pursued an anti-Moscow policy. In his correspondence with Peter the Great, he defended the rights and freedoms of the Cossacks and tried to prevent the construction of Russian outposts and garrisons on the Cossack lands. For the sake of Ukraine’s future, Hordiienko allied himself with Hetman Mazepa, fought near Poltava, and found himself in exile. Together with Pylyp Orlyk, he participated in the drafting of the Constitution.

The monument became part of the Reserve in 2009 and continued to serve to strengthen Ukraine’s statehood and independence until the full-scale invasion of Russia. Ukrainian Cossacks and patriotic groups of the Kherson region celebrated national holidays and held ceremonial events on the territory of the monument, which is shrouded in the spirit of chivalry and the will of the Cossacks. Kamianska Sich became a place where recruits of the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, named after the famous Cossack otaman Kost Hordiienko, took the oath of allegiance.

Aside from that, archaeologists from the Khortytsia National Reserve unearthed relics from the Scythian, Bronze Age, and Kyivan Rus periods along the coastline bordering the Kamianska Sich. 

We have drawn up all the necessary documents and recorded the damage to the best of our ability, given that civilians have no access to the site for a full examination as of today. We informed the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy. Criminal proceedings have been opened over the incident.