In 1736, as the Commander of the Russian army he headed the Turkish campaigns besieging the important ports of Azak and Özi. On 21 May 1735 he stormed and sacked Or Qapı penetrating into the Crimea peninsula. Münnich destroyed the important Tatar cities of Kezlev, Aqmescit, and Bakhchisaray. He was forced out of the peninsula due to poor logistics and battle fatigue of his formations, while another General, Count Peter von Lacy, took Azak earning himself a rank of the General field marshall. Münnich refused to resume the campaign the very next year, but he returned to the lower Dnieper steppes in 1737, and on 2 July took the fortress of Özi with the help of the Russian artillery. During the sack of Özi, he manually raised the regimental banner of the Izmailovsky Regiment on one of the towers of fortress after a successful attack. The siege of Özi was also later mentioned in the humorous stories about Baron Munchausen, based on the adventures of the page to Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick, Hieronymus von Münchhausen. Due to the heavy losses, the campaign was paused again while conducting negotiations in Nemirov (Podolie) without much result. In 1739, Münnich won the Battle of Stavuchany, took Khotyn two days later, and established himself firmly in Moldavia. His victory in this campaign was later mentioned in one of the Lomonosov's odes, considered to be the first poem of Russian literature. Threatening to burn down the capital of Moldavia, the city of Iași, he forced the Moldavian boyars to sign the annexation of Moldavia. After the Ottoman war he was awarded the Order of St. Andrew and the Golden Weapon for Courage. Due to military losses of the Habsburg monarchy and worsening of the relationship with the Swedish Hats, the Russian Empire had to sign the Treaty of Niš by which it had to return the newly acquired Nogai steppes while keeping the fortress of Azak.