The author also notes that Sirko later in his life did actually live in Merefa with his family on his own estate, and according to some earlier local chronicles there even existed a small settlement called Sirkivka.

However, Mytsyik also points out that in 1658–1660 Sirko served as a colonel of the Kalnyk Polk (a military and administrative division of the Cossack Hetmanate) in Podilia, a position usually awarded to the representative of a local population.

Mytsyik also recalls that another historian, Volodymyr Borysenko, allowed for the possibility that Sirko was born in Murafa near the city of Sharhorod (now in Vinnytsia Oblast).

The author explains during that time when people were fleeing the war (known as the Ruin, 1659–1686) they may have established a similarly named town in Sloboda Ukraine further east.

Sirko's mother is identified as a native of Podolia, but information about her exact ethnic background is scarce, possibly having Romanian origin.

In 1654, he initially opposed the alliance with Moscow during the Pereyaslav Rada, departing to Chortomlyk Sich to protect the southern borders of Ukraine from Crimean-Nogai raids.

Sirko played an important role in Cossack campaigns and raids against the Crimean Khanate, Nogai Horde and Ottoman Empire.

[37] Following the death of Demian Mnohohrishny in 1672, Sirko entered the struggle for the Hetman title, but was exiled by the Russian Tsar to Tobolsk, Siberia.

However, Mehmed IV took advantage of the absence of Ivan Sirko, in spring the 300,000-strong Ottoman army crossed the Danube and invaded Podolia.

In 1673, Russian Tsar returned Sirko back to Ukraine, reportedly at the request of John III Sobieski and other European states concerned about the growing Ottoman threat.

However, Sirko discovered that 3,000 of the freed Christian slaves wanted to go back to Crimea, a lot of whom actually converted to Islam, so he ordered their execution.

Cossacks led by Ivan Sirko replied in an uncharacteristic manner: they wrote a letter, replete with insults and profanities, which later became the subject of a painting by Ilya Repin.

We captured Trabzon and Sinop, we turned the Asian coast upside down; we cauterized the flanks of Belgrade, we wiped out Varna, Izmail and many Danube fortresses from the map.

The Cossacks replaced the broken cross with a memorial rock that has survived to the present, but they erroneously marked the date of his death as May 4.

On November 1967, the Kakhovka Reservoir was threatening the Otaman Sirko's burial site, causing him to be reburied near the village of Kapulivka, Nikopol Raion, but without his skull.

[46][3] It was not until 1987 when writer Yuriy Mushketyk remembered the 'Beheaded Otaman' and wrote a letter to the Association for Preservation of History and Culture of Ukraine.

On July 15, 1990 the member of parliament from Rukh, Volodymyr Yavorivsky called for Sirko's skull to be brought back from Moscow.

[3] The journal Pamyatky Ukrainy (Attractions of Ukraine) responded to the calls in 1990 and after 23 years with the help of anthropologist Serhiy Seheda the remains of Ivan Sirko were returned to his native land.

Over his life, Sirko is said to have participated in over 65 battles, and he reportedly didn’t lose a single one, making him one of the most successful Cossack leaders in history.

[48] Turks and Tatars named Sirko the "Rus' Devil" (Urus Shaitan), signifying his reputation as an invincible Cossack leader.

[8][49] Polish chronicler Wespazjan Kochowski characterised Sirko the following way:[50] He was terrible in the Horde, for he was experienced in military campaigns and a brave cavalier, surpassing Doroshenko in this.

Sirko is widely remembered in numerous literary works of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky, Adrian Kashchenko, Volodymyr Malyk, Mykola Zerov, Borys Modzalevsky, and many others.

[52] Adrian Kashchenko wrote about Sirko:[36] Could an ordinary man, with a handful of comrades, be able to fight off a much larger, better-armed Turkish and Tatar armies on his own, without anyone else's help, and slaughter over 30,000 Janissaries, like sheep, between the Sich Kurins?

[55] After a popular book, Iak kozaky voiuvaly (How the Cossacks Fought) was published in 1990, Ivan Sirko was began to be viewed in a more positive and idealistic image.

According to this book: "the famed Cossack leader was a deeply religious man, an altruistic ascetic who almost never consumed alcohol and was known for his strength, valour, and high moral standards".

"[57] In August 2019, the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was renamed after Ivan Sirko by a decree of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

[58] Sirko is credited as the co-author of the mocking reply to Ottoman Sultan, which created a basis for the painting that was important in shaping both Ukrainian and Russian nationalism.

[59][60]: 14:38 Field Marshal Kutuzov reportedly used Sirko's right hand before the Battle of Borodino in 1812, to inspire the Russian Imperial Army.

In 1952, KPU's Central Committee's inspector V. Stetsenko informed First Secretary Melnikov that the construction of hydroelectric dam in Nikopol will get Sirko's grave underwater.

[61] In 1966, when the President of France, Charles de Gaulle was visiting the Soviet Union, he personally requested to bring him to the burial location of Ivan Sirko.