John Skylitzes, a Byzantine historian of the 11th century described a notable event that took place on Bulgarian soil several decades before he was born. It happened in 971 after one of the epic battles between the army of Sviatoslav the Brave of Kyiv and the army of the Byzantine Empire: “When the Romans were robbing the corpses of the barbarians of their spoils, they found women lying among the fallen, equipped like men; women who had fought against the Romans together with the men.” (Synopsis of Byzantine History). As several recent articles on this site showed, the territory of present-day Ukraine has a rich history of women fighting equally with men even in the first millennium B.C. Historians name those female warriors Scythian Amazons. Can there be a connection between the Scythian Amazons and the women that fought in the ranks of Kyiv ruler Sviatoslav the Brave in the 10th century A.D.? The book “Kyiv Rus in Heimskringla Sagas and Byzantine Texts” provides an answer to this question. It can be not just a coincidence that Ukrainian Katheryn Winnick is so natural in the role of Lagertha from the popular The Vikings TV series. There are distinguished Ukrainian female warriors in the current war against Muscovy’s invasion. Read the story of a former MP Tetiana Chornovol for example. Here is another one about her in the Washington Post.
