Ottoman Empire Petar I Petrović Njegoš The Battle of Krusi (Albanian: Beteja e Krusit; Serbian: Битка на Крусима, romanized: Bitka na Krusima) was fought on 22 September 1796 between the campaigning army of Ottoman Empire commanded by Kara Mahmud Pasha, the Pasha of Scutari, and tribes of Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro under the command of Metropolitan Petar I Petrović Njegoš and Jovan Radonjić, at Krusi, Lješanska nahija.

In the meantime, near the Montenegrin borders, a rather large number of forces were stationed due to the concentration of attacks towards Montenegro and Brda.

From Podgorica, the Pasha's forces moved onto Lješkopolje because his goal was to use the Lješkopolje-Krusi-Carev laz-Rijeka Crnojevića line to his advantage in order to carry out a raid towards Cetinje.

[1] The battle occurred on 3 October 1796 when Pasha ordered his troops to cross the right hand bank of the Sitnica River and attack Montenegrin positions.

[2] The earliest historical sources about this battle include records of Russian deacon Aleksije, at that time the scribe of Petar I.

In that report Petar I expressed his gratitude for the support of Russia and its empress, proudly stating that his forces had killed the Scutari governor and captured 33 Ottoman flags, large numbers of light weapons and plenty of ammunition.