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| Battle of Chițcani (1683) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofPolish–Ottoman War (1683–1699),Great Turkish War andKunicki's campaign | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Stefan Kunicki Ștefan Petriceicu |  Yala-Pasha Ali, bey of Tighina † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 15,000–18,000 | 25,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None (Kunicki's claim) | Unknown (many killed) | ||||||
Battle of Chițcani (1683) was a battle of the united Cossack troops of thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the command of the Right-bank HetmanStefan Kunicki and Moldavian armyȘtefan Petriceicu with detachments of theBudjak Horde on 5 December 1683 duringKunicki's campaign at the beginning of thePolish-Ottoman War (1683–1699).
On 23 July 1683, the council of the Right-bank Cossacks in the presence of 40 chiefs appealed to the Polish kingJohn III Sobieski with a request to accept the Right Bank Cossacks under his authority and allow a campaign against the Turkish possessions. On 24 August of the same year, the Polish monarch appointedStefan Kunicki as hetman of the Right-bank Zaporizhian Cossacks.[1] During the summer and autumn of 1683 Kunicki's army made several campaigns and occupiedNemyriv,Chișinău,Bender. At the end of 1683, the 5,000-strong army of the hetman made a campaign through Moldavian lands to theBudzhak andBilhorod steppes.
On 5 December, a 15,000-strong Cossack-Moldavian detachment of Kunicki andȘtefan Petriceicu suddenly attacked a 25,000-strong detachment of Ali-Pasha near the village ofChițcani, not far from the bank of the Danube. The Tatars were defeated, during the pursuit many Horde men were killed (Ali-Pasha, Aliger-Pasha, several murza) and Tatar commanders were taken prisoner.
Later Kunicki noted that not a single man in his army was killed. Having won the victory, the hetman of theRight-bank Ukraine moved deep into the Nogai possessions. Stefan Kunicki and his Cossacks destroyed the settlements aroundBilhorod (Akkerman) and reached the shores of the Black Sea, taking by storm the cities ofIzmail andKiliia. After this success Hetman Kunicki tried to take Bilhorod, but because of the lack of artillery he failed. Part of the Cossacks, weighed down with booty, returned to Ukraine.[1]
