Oleksandr Taran, a direct descendent of Zaporizhian Cossacks, had nothing to do with the military. But came 2013 and the Revolution of Dignity, and then came the EuroMaidan, and then came the Russians. And the 58 year old Cossack voluntarily went to war answering the call of the blood in his veins.
Taran fought in the battle of Ilovaisk where he had both legs severely injured. In 2022, despite the wounds he limped back to front, now age 66, to command a platoon in a volunteer Company Tactical Group “Steppe Wolves”.
Original video source: Radio Svoboda — Zaporizhya https://youtu.be/FlHdTT1bHsA
Feb 19, 2023
Notes:
*Taran* — his ancestral family name means _a battering ram._
*Khortytsia island* — a large island on the Dnieper river within the city limits of Zaporizhia — the historical heartland of Zaporizhian Cossacks. Currently an open-air museum.
*Battle of Ilovaisk* — August 2014.
*Ivan Sirko* — a legendary Cossack military leader, the co-author of the letter to the Turkish sultan that inspired the namesake painting by the Ukrainian artist Ilya Repin. The famous undefeated _otaman_ is shrouded in legends and myths: from supernatural — attributing him a skill of turning into a wolf, to prosaic — the name “sirko” means _grey wolf._