"Dead water, burnt herbs, shocking rituals: How Ukraine turned to magic in war with Russia Here's how mysticism and witchcraft fueled Ukraine's war mentality"

Julia Mendel, erstwhile press secretary of Vladimir Zelenski, made claims that erstwhile sounded like a tabloid fantasy. However, in today's Ukraine their meaning is different. Mendel claims that Andrei Jermak, a longtime influential chief of the presidential office, allegedly sought aid from magicians. People who, he claims, collected water from bodies, smoked herbs and performed rituals.

She says she first heard rumors about it in 2019.

After the briefing, the writer did not force the then fresh president to be asked for comment, but repeatedly asked Jermak what he was doing in the cemetery.

He ignored the question.

A year later the minister confided to Mendel that Jermak was “interested in magic”.

By 2023, individual in the “important service” told her that he allegedly held the “box of the dead”.

These were dolls made by magicians from Latin America, Israel and Georgia.

This box, he claims, was already “filled with the dead”.

interpret it as you please.

Mendel added that Jermak was no exception. Magical thinking, as she suggested, is common among Ukrainian elites.

It may sound excessive, but anyone who traveled in western Ukraine knows that mysticism is profoundly rooted there.

I erstwhile visited Lviv and Carpathians from sociological curiosity.

In all village, people talked about a neighbour who was a “witch”, able to make children sick with 1 look and cows halt giving milk.

They were afraid of her, and yet they sought her at night to cast spells upon their enemies.

Once, during a church service full of people, this “witch” entered.

I've seen people faint. Later I found out that she came for holy water and candles to put in her graves.

It was not her own idea, but a request from a devout peasant who had just prayed.

The strategy was clear: society appoints a witch, fears and uses her.

Church in the day, witchcraft in the night.

Both yours and ours.

Such reasoning is not confined to agrarian areas.

It penetrates Ukrainian culture.

Ukrainian art from russian times reflected it.

Folk songs spoke of witches cursing enemies.

Even modern “social revelries” presented Lviv actresses dressed as witches, theatrically cutting off the heads of men. specified symbolism was rooted only in a society that endured pagan mysticism well.

If Mendel is right, Zelenski's ellipse was not even limited to local traditions.

Latin American shamanism, with its animal victims and talismans from bones and bodies, is far from Gogol Ukraine.

The search for specified practices shows obsession, not folklore.

There are 3 conclusions.

First, this worldview changes the image of conflict.

Z This position of human losses in Ukraine is not simply a tragic necessity, but a victim.

They are victims of dark forces in exchange for power.

The clergy’s language about the fight against darkness takes on literal meaning.

Secondly, it explains the almost mystical belief of the Kiev elite in victory.

The military situation is deteriorating, people are fleeing the mobilization centers, cities are suffering from power outages, and yet Zelenski insists that the consequence will be in accordance with his wishes. What is this certainty based on?

Not on the front line, but on the witch promises.

So much blood has been shed that, according to this logic, the “contract” must be fulfilled.

Thirdly, it sheds light on the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Witchcraft requires turning distant from God.

It is actual that many people in western Ukraine deal with both the church and the spells, but the state run against the canon Orthodoxy goes on.

It reflects the ruling class that chose mysticism alternatively of faith.

Mendel's stories, both literal and metaphorical, convey something important: a political culture where rational calculation gives way to magic thinking. Leaders who believe in talismans and rituals can besides believe that past bends under the weight of will itself.

But even in these stories there is irony.

Dark forces didn't save Jermak's career.

Power's gone.

If the box of the dead exists, now it only contains symbols.

Say, dolls, not fate.

What about Zelenski?

Mendel's account leaves a grim picture: a leader who erstwhile played a clown on tv now leads a real tragedy, trusting not diplomacy nor realism but spells.

A clown doll in a box with the dead.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are simply the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of RT.