“Do you know where you are now? This is Konotop! Every woman here is a witch!" - shouted an unarmed Ukrainian woman addressing an armed Russian soldier, threatening him with the spell of impotence. 

 When dominated by the physical force, can women develop magic powers to fight back? There are numerous myths and legends about Ukrainian witches, and town of Konotop is the folklore “capital” of Ukrainian witches, described in literature and tales including Ivan Kotlyarevskyi, Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, Mykhailo Kotsyubynskyi, and Mykola Gogol. Ukrainian witches are a well-known cultural and ethnographic phenomenon. In Ukraine, a “witch” was an adult or elderly married woman, who had a good knowledge of herbs, was a healer, helped to treat cattle, predicted good harvest and could advise on women’s health and even happy marriage. This image is neither mean nor threatening in the Ukrainian myths, although, of course, who would recommend joking with a witch?