Ostap Dashkevych

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Ostaphii "Ostap" Dashkevych (Ukrainian: Остафій Дашкевич; born in Ovruch 1470 – died after 1535) is one of the earliest recorded leaders of an organized Cossack defense force.

Dashkevych held a position of starosta in Cherkasy and Kaniv (1514–35). At the early stages of development of Cossacks he was informally referred to as a ataman. Some sources as well as oral tradition claim that Dashkevych lived past the age of 80, at which age he routed the Tatars at Cherkasy.