In the second half of the 15th century, the Moscow launched an active offensive on Ruthenian lands. At the same time, after the civil war in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (1432–1438) and the unsuccessful attempt to create the Grand Duchy of Rus, some of the Ukrainian magnates and princes decided to turn to Moscow for help. Disagreeing with the policy of unification of the Lithuanian-Rus state with Poland, they negotiated with the Moscow prince and even began to move to the Moscow state.[4]
In the summer of 1482, Prince Ivan III of Russia sent an embassy, valuable gifts, and a considerable sum of money to the Crimean Khan Meñli I Giray in an attempt to make him attack the Ukrainian lands. Mengli Geray, at the urging of the Prince of Moscow, went on a campaign to Kiev. On September 1, he captured the city, burned cathedrals and churches, and captured many people. As a gift to Prince Ivan of Moscow, the khan sent a cart with looted goods from Kiev's cathedrals and churches, including an iconostasis, a golden bowl and a discus from St. Sophia Cathedral.
At the same time, in the 1480s, a number of raids by Moscow detachments took place on the border territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russia and Samogitia[citation needed]. Thus, in 1487, Prince Ivan Vorotynsky attacked Mezetsk and plundered it. This was the reason for the official start of the war.
The Moscow-Lithuanian war is divided into two stages:
1st stage 1487—1492;
2nd stage 1492—1494
The first stage took place, mostly in border skirmishes in the north-eastern principalities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
In 1492–1494, concluding a new alliance with the Crimean Khan, Moscow made a number of joint campaigns in the Kiev, Podillya, Volyn, and Chernihiv regions. Thus, in 1493 Mengli-Girey together with the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III conducted a joint campaign in Kiev and the Kiev region.
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