Prince Kiril Bagration was a son of Prince Alexander, a natural son of King Jesse of Kartli. Kiril was nine years old, when Alexander fled the unfavorable political climate in Kartli and joined his émigré relatives in Russia in 1759. Kiril and his elder brother, Ivan, following their father's suit, entered the Russian service. Kiril enlisted in the Pskov Carabinier Regiment as a wachtmeister in 1767 and fought in the 1768–74 Russo-Turkish War which he ended as a captain. From 1776 to 1777, he took part in bringing the Crimean Tatars to submission and eventually represented the Crimean nobility at the court of the tsarina Catherine II. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1786, he was present at the siege and capture of Bender during the 1787–92 Russo-Turkish War and commanded a vanguard in General Wilhelm Derfelden's corps during the 1792 invasion of Poland. Bagration became a colonel in 1793 and enlisted in the Chuguyevsky Cossack Regular Regiment, which he accompanied in the Persian Expedition of 1796. He was promoted to major-general in 1797 and put in command of a jäger regiment, which was given his name in 1798.