The Cossacks destroyed a powerful garrison that could have threatened the rear of the army and took a large ransom from the townspeople.

In June 1618, a 20,000-strong Cossack army led by Hetman Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny marched on Moscow, choosing the southern route to attack - from Putivl.

In his opinion, Sahaidachny decided to capture Yelets at any cost, rather than bypass the city, so as not to leave large enemy forces in the rear.

Preparations for the assault lasted for several days: the Cossacks were making tura (wooden mobile towers) to be brought under the walls of the fortress.

Moscow voivodes Andrey Polev and Ivan Khrushchev tried to organise defence inside the city, on the outskirts of the citadel, but under the onslaught of the Cossacks, the Muscovites could not resist and fled.

For this, they promised a ransom - the embassy from Moscow to Bakhchisarai was in Yelets, carrying "mention" (tribute) for the Crimean khan - 8,467 rubles.

The Cossacks captured both voivodes and their wives, as well as tsarist diplomats M. Chelyustkin and S. Khrushchev, and other members of the embassy.

In a letter to Prince Wladyslawa, Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny wrote that many Cossacks were killed and wounded in the battles for Yelets.

The Cossack hetman estimated enemy losses at 20,000 "military men"[2] Which exceeds the size of the garrison by almost 10 times.

[3] The news of the fall of Livny and Yelets reached the neighbouring Moscow cities with lightning speed and caused panic.

The voivodes of a number of towns on the Cossacks' route(Lebedyan, Dankov) fled, and the garrisons surrendered without a fight.

The memory of the devastation caused to Yelets by the Cossacks was preserved by the locals until the nineteenth century, considering it "the Lord's punishment for helping impostors".