15th century — XVIII century
Some of the oldest written references to the Ukrainian Cossacks in 1489 and 1492 convincingly testified to their fierce struggle with the warlike Turks and Tatars, which continued throughout the following centuries. The Zaporizhzhya Sich is a kind of military-political formation that arose in the southern lands of Ukraine, and in the future was the most characteristic manifestation of the military culture of the Ukrainian nation.with the Western world, the Cossacks combined such elements of chivalry as the family principle of organization, brotherhood, equality, democracy; the moral and ethical code of conduct of a Sichov warrior — courage, bravery, loyalty, honor, good fame, fight against enemies of the faith, defense of the homeland; specific attitude towards women, asceticism, religiosity, etc. Cossacks were self-aware of themselves as free people, whose way of life was determined by military craft and belonging to the military community. The constant struggle with the nomadic peoples of the East contributed to the emergence of certain types of military art among the Cossacks and forced them to create their own armed forces (including a powerful navy), which resisted Ottoman-Tatar aggression.
