Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 ( ) were two military campaign s of the Russian army against the Crimean Khanate . They were a part of the Russo - Turkish War ( 1686 – 1700 ) and Russo - Crimean Wars . These were the first Russian forces to come close to Crimea since 1569 . They failed due to poor planning and leadership and the practical problem or moving such a large force across the steppe . Having signed the Eternal Peace Treaty with Poland in 1686 , Russia became a member of the anti - Turkish coalition ( " Holy League " — Austria , Venice and Poland ) , which was pushing the Turks south after their failure at Vienna in 1683 ( the major result of this war was the liberation of most of Hungary from Turkish rule ) . Russia ' s role in 1687 was to send a force south to Perekop to bottle up the Crimeans inside their peninsula . First campaign . On 2 May 1687 , a Russian army of about 132 , 000 soldiers , led by knyaz Vasily Golitsyn , left Okhtyrka on the Belgorod Line . On 30 May they were joined by 50 , 000 Left Bank Cossacks under hetman Ivan Samoilovich at the mouth of the Samora River where the Dnieper turns south . In the heat of summer , 180 , 000 men , 20 , 000 wagons and 100 , 000 horses set out down the east bank of the Dnieper . The huge force , which started too late and was perhaps not well organized , could only travel about 10 km per day . When the Russians reached the Konskiye Vody river on the west - flowing part of the Dnieper , they found that the Tatars has set fire to the steppe ( they had planned to use steppe grass to feed their horses ) . After a few days of marching over burnt land , their horses were exhausted , they were short of water and 130 miles from their goal at Perekop , however Golitsyn built a fortress at Novobogoroditskoe at the junction of the Dnieper and the Samara . On 17 June they decided to turn back . ( Ivan Samoilovich was made a scapegoat and replaced by Ivan Mazepa . ) Second campaign . In February 1689 , 112 , 000 Muscovite troops and 350 guns set out . On 20 April they were joined at Novobogoroditskoye by 30 - 40 , 000 Cossacks under Mazepa . They followed the 1687 route , but marched in six separate columns and made much better time . By 3 May they were at the point where the 1687 expedition had turned back . On 15 and 16 May they were attacked by Crimean Tatars near Zelenaya Dolina and Chernaya Dolina . The Crimeans did fairly well but were driven back by the Russian ' s tabor defense and artillery . On 20 May they reached the isthmus of Perekop . Golitsyn was dismayed to find that all the grass in the area had been trampled down and that there was no source of drinking water north of the peninsula , thereby making a long siege or blockade impossible . Further on , the Tatars had dug a 7 km ditch which made moving the artillery forward , impossible . The next day , Golitsyn ordered his army to turn back . The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 diverted some of the Ottoman and Crimean forces in favor of Russia ' s allies . However , the Russian army didn ' t reach the goal of stabilizing Russia ' s southern borders . The unsuccessful outcome of these campaigns was one of the reasons the government of Sophia Alekseyevna collapsed . References . Brian L Davies , " Warfare , State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe 1500 - 1700 " , Routledge , 2007 .