The Cossack and Russian period 1704–1714

Left-Bank Cossack forces under hetman Ivan Mazepa (elected hetman on July 25, 1687) were fighting on the Russian side in the beginning of the Great Northern War with Sweden. Mazepa's participation in the war made it possible for him to take control of Right-Bank Ukraine in 1704, after Semen Palii's Cossack revolt effectively had weakened Polish authority there.

Hetman Ivan Mazepa's coat of arms on a table at the College in Chernihiv.

But Mazepa, supported by most of his senior officers, began secret negotiations in 1706 with King Stanislaus I Leszczynski of Poland and then with Carl XII of Sweden, and forged with them an anti-Russian coalition in 1708. The actual terms of the alliance are unknown, but according to official Russian sources its chief goal was that the Little Russian Cossack people would be a separate principality and not subjects of a Russian state. Later the Zaporozhian Host joined the coalition, and on March 28, 1709 Mazepa, Otaman Kost Hordiienko, and Carl XII signed a treaty in which Carl agreed not to sign any peace with Moscow until Ukraine and the Zaporozhian lands were freed of Russian rule.

But after the defeat at the battle of Poltava on July 8, 1709 Ukraine's fate was sealed for a long time. Mazepa, king Carl XII, and Kost Hordiienko, together with 3,000 followers, fled to Turkish-held territory around Bendery.

Russian troops together with allied Cossack forces continued to occupy parts of the Right-Bank Ukraine.

Technically Right-Bank Ukraine was still Polish land but for some years it was now ruled by Russian troops. During this period many Ukrainians on the Right-Bank Ukraine were forced to move to Left-Bank Ukraine that now officially was Russian land.