On Saturday, 1 March 2025, the team of the Media Center Directorate organised a weekend tour for diplomats, during which they visited the Cossack settlement of Mamaieva Sloboda, located in the historical area, where the legendary Lybid River originates.
Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Albania (Ernal Filo) and Montenegro (Borjanka Simićević), staff members of the Embassies of Denmark and Mexico, as well as international organisations, namely the European Investment Bank and the UNHCR, joined the trip to the ancient Cossack settlement in the capital.
Mamaieva Sloboda is an exceptional architectural ensemble comprising 98 objects: wind- and watermills, apiaries, Cossack homesteads, traditional houses, a tavern, workshops and a market square. This exact replica of the Zaporizhzhian Sich churches from the era of Bohdan Zynovii Khmelnytskyi was constructed without a single nail.
The diplomats visited the museum of living history, admired the architecture and lifestyle of a Ukrainian Cossack village of the second half of the 17th century, and toured the estates of a churchwarden, Cossack armour bearers, a blacksmith, a potter and the pearl of the complex — a wooden Cossack church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin with an exquisite interior.
The foreign guests were captivated by the immersive storytelling of Cossack culture and military past, as every object and corner of the ethnic complex is full of history. At the end of the tour, the diplomats enjoyed a delicious lunch featuring authentic Ukrainian cuisine, tasted eight Cossack-era drinks: slyvianka (plum liquor), dulivka and hrushivka (pear liquors), vyshniak (cherry liquor), kusaka (ginger, cardamom and pepper liquor), hanusivka (anise liquor), kalhanivka (galangal liquor), zapikanka (liquor with spices from the oven), and varenukha (liquor with dried fruit from the stove), and learned the technology of their production dating back to the 17th century. The glassware and pottery of that era combined with the flickering glow of candlelight allowed the diplomatic missions’ staff to feel the spirit of the Cossack age and make a real journey back in time.
