| Kunicki's campaign | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofPolish–Ottoman War (1683–1699) andGreat Turkish War | |||||||||
 Stefan Kunicki who led the Anti-Ottoman campaign of 1683–1684 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Cossack Hetmanate[a] Zaporozhian Sich[1] Poland–Lithuania Don Cossacks[1] Moldavia(Pro-Kunicki faction) |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Yala-Pasha Yusuf-aga Ali, bey of Tighina †.svg) Haci II Giray Ali-Giray † Ivan Draginich | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| In September: 5,000–6,000[b] At the end of campaign: 8,000–30,000 Cossacks and Moldavians | Chițcani: 25,000 Reni: 10,000–12,000 7 guns | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Very heavy | Kunicki's claim: Over 300,000 military and civilians killed[2] | ||||||||
TheKunicki's campaign was a major military expedition led by the Right-bank hetmanStefan Kunicki against the Ottoman-Tatar forces in theRight-bank Ukraine,Moldavia and neighbouring territories as a part of the ongoingGreat Turkish War. The campaign began in September of 1683, soon after the Christian victory at theBattle of Vienna. Kunicki's army quickly seized most of Right-bank Ukraine, after that the Cossacks, supported by the Moldavian opposition ofȘtefan Petriceicu, captured several Moldavian cities, includingChișinău. On 5 of December 1683, the Cossack-Moldavian troops defeated the Turks and Tatars at thebattle of Chițcani[3] but on the next month were defeatednear Reni. Despite the failure of Kunicki's campaign in Moldavia, the campaign still ended overall successfully as the Cossacks overtook majority of the Right-bank Ukraine (Ottoman Ukraine).
The Right-bank Ukraine was a battlefield ever since 1648, with several conflicts taking place there, such as theKhmelnytsky Uprising, thePolish–Russian War, thePolish–Cossack–Tatar War (1666–1671) and thePolish–Ottoman War. In the last of the named conflicts, the Ottoman Empire had established a protectorate overDoroshenko's Ukraine, which was confirmed by theTreaty of Żurawno in 1676. The attempts of capturing this region by Russia and the Samoylovych's Hetmanate ended in a failure.
The Poland-Lithuania appointedOstap Hohol a hetman-in-charge of Polish-held regiments in April of 1675,[4] however after his death the Cossack Hetmanate on the Right bank wasde-facto dissolved. The need to recreate it appeared with the beginning of Great Turkish War. On 24 of August,John Sobieski, who was preparing for a campaign toVienna, appointedStefan Kunicki as ahetman of the Zaporozhian Host on the Right-bank Ukraine.[5] On 12 September,Battle of Vienna took place which resulted in a decisive Holy league victory. This allowed Kunicki to begin his campaign.
The campaign began at the end of September. The Cossacks of Kunicki approachedNemyriv and captured it, removing the Ottoman administration of Ivan Draginich.[5][6] Kunicki was trying to get volunteers fromLeft-bank,Zaporozhian Sich and theDon Host. In total he managed to gather 5,000-6,000 people, while some sources put this number as high as 20 thousand.[1] In the course of the campaign, Stefan Kunicki also recapturedCzortków,Husiatyn,Yampil andMohyliv,[7] while his attempts to captureBar andMedzhybizh ended in a failure.[8]
Some sources claim that Kunicki had raided Moldavia and Budjak in September and then returned toNemyriv,[1][9] while other sources claim that the Summer–early Autumn campaign of Kunicki had never actually took place and that Kunicki invaded Moldavia only once.[10]
In the end of October–early November, his army invadedBudjak steppe andMoldavia and began massacring local Tatar villages.[11] After capturingMohyliv andYampil, Kunicki's Cossacks crossed thePrut river.[12] On 13 of November, a Cossack rada took place nearTighina, where the Cossacks decided to sackAq Qirmān,Tighina andKiliia and raid Budjak.[13][12] In November, the Cossacks approached the city of Nagai, where an Ottoman–Tatar garrison war dislocated. Kunicki attacked the garrison, defeated it and captured the city.[1][8] After that he had marched towardsChișinău and soon entered it. There, the Cossack–Polish army of Kunicki united with Moldavian forces ofȘtefan Petriceicu,[11] who had accepted the protectorate of Poland–Lithuania and the Cossack Hetmanate.[1] Before entering the city, the Cossacks massacred several Tatar settlements on the way to Chișinău.[12] At the end of November, Kunicki and his Cossacks besieged Tighina, but were not able to capture it.[11]
On 5 of December, several Ottoman–Tatar units led by Yala-Pasha were returning from the campaign inHungary. Kunicki's Cossacks and Moldavians noticed and attacked them near Chițcani inMoldavia.[14] The battle ended with a decisive Christian victory – Bey of Tighina and Ali-Giray, who was the Khan ofBudjak Horde,[11] were killed in the battle and several Tatar murzas were captured. Meanwhile,Petriceicu and his Moldavian and Polish units, enteredIași[11] and was proclaimed a prince of Moldavia. After the victory at Chițcani, the Cossacks besiegedTighina on 6 of December, but once again failed to capture it and went on a raid in Budjak.[13] They ravagedIzmail,Kiliia and settlements near Akkerman,[14] wiping out almost the entire Tatar population ofBudjak. At the end of December, Kunicki found out about the upcoming Crimean–Ottoman units of Haci Giray, who were returning fromCentral Europe.[9]
He then left Budjak and went towards thePrut. Near Tobak fortress his army stood up a camp and was preparing to cross the river. On 30 of December, they were caught up by Haci Girays 12,000-strong army and their camp was besieged, while the Cossacks were waiting assistance fromAndrzej Potocki, who stayed in Iași. On 1 of January, a rada took place in the Cossack camp.[15] Few days later, the Moldavians left the battlefield.[11]
Kunicki and his units of approximately from 300[15] to 2000[9] people soon crossed the Prut and did the same, retreating to Iași and then to Nemyriv.[15] Andriy Mohyla, who was left in the camp with his 4,000 soldiers, managed to fight out of the ambush with heavy casualties and retreat to Ukraine with 3,000 people.[15]
Stefan Kunicki stayed inIași from 7 to 9 January. While being there, he tried to explain his behaviour by the betrayal and desertion of Moldavians from the battlefield, which "motivated the Cossacks to do the same and forced him to retreat as well",[16] while the Cossacks and Moldavians that did not retreat with Kunicki blamed him for the defeat.[16] The campaign in the Right-bank ended with a Cossack success,Nemyriv and several other cities were recaptured from the Ottoman rule and the Cossack administration was installed there.
Although the expedition to Moldavia ended in a failure due to thedefeat at Reni, it can still be considered somewhat successful, as the campaign forced a large number of Tatar soldiers to abandon their positions in Hungary.[16] The campaign in Budjak ended with a very heavy civilian casualties, the Cossacks of Kunicki brutally massacred tens of thousands ofNogais andLipka Tatars. In March of 1684, a new Cossack rada took place inMohyliv, where Andriy Mohyla was recognised a new hetman.[14][17] Kunicki was captured and executed,[17] while trying to escape from the place of rada.[14]
Potocki failed to provide help for Petriceicu, and in April of 1684 he was fully defeated and retreated on the territory of Commonwealth.[18] Fedir Sulymenko, who was captured by the Turks in the course of campaign, went over to their side and was appointed as a hetman of theOttoman Ukraine. He attempted to capture Nemyriv from Mohyla but failed and was executed in 1685.[19]