Content in this edit is translated from the existing Ukrainian Wikipedia article at Битва під Костянтиновом; see its history for attribution.

The Battle of Kostiantyniv (Ukrainian: Битва під Костянтиновим, Polish: Bitwa pod Konstantynowem) was fought between the Zaporozhian Host and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as a part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising took place on 26 to 28 July 1648.

Near the site of the present-day town of Starokostiantyniv on the Ikopot [uk] and Sluch Rivers in Ukraine, a forces of the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the Ukrainian peasants under the command of Maksym Kryvonis and Ivan Hyria [uk] attacked the Polish–Lithuanian army under the command of Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, Janusz Tyszkiewicz Łohojski and Władysław Dominik Zasławski.

The news of the Cossack victories at the Battle of Zhovti Vody and the Korsun caused an outbreak of rebellion against the Polish-Lithuanian authorities.

In Left-Bank Ukraine, large rebel detachments already in early June destroyed the residence of Wiśniowiecki in Lubny, and during the same month captured Borzna, Nizhyn and Novgorod-Siversky.

In July-August, united peasant-bourgeois formations appeared in Volhynia and Polissya, and at the end of August—in Galicia and Pokuttia, by the fall of 1648 covering the entire Ukrainian space from Chernihiv-Siver region to the Carpathians.

[8] Having made his way with an 8,000-strong court army from the Left Bank to Polissya, in the second half of June 1648, Prince Wiśniowiecki set out to pacify the Kyiv and Bratslav regions.

The princely army passed through Kotelnya, Vchorayshe, Pogrebyshe, Vakhnivka, Nemyriv and Pryluka and brutally suppressed the uprising in all these cities.

According to Polish sources, Kryvonos was accompanied by a significant part of the rebel peasants, who played a supporting role in his army.

The mounted Cossacks were opposed by Samuil Osinsky, defending the crossing near the mill on the river, with a company of musketeers of the royal guard and a pair of small regimental cannons, supported by battery of Wiśniowiecki's guns.

Given the twilight, the significant numerical superiority of the Cossack army and the strong rifle and cannon fire from the camp, the nobles abandoned their attempt to capture it and retreated to their own bank of the river.

From Poluyan, who, according to the Polish side, was familiar with information at the level of the Hetman's Cossack councils, it became known that Khmelnytsky had set out with a huge army and Kryvonos had the task of holding Wiśniowiecki for as long as possible.

Having received news of the approach of Khmelnytsky's army, the magnate's military council, convened by Wiśniowiecki, decided to break away from the enemy and retreat to the west.

As soon as the first signs of dawn appeared, the magnate's convoy, the guards regiment and Sukhodolsky's infantry moved towards Kulchyn (west of Konstyantyniv), followed by the cavalry at a walk.

The Ford across the Sluch was initially covered by a company of infantry (120 soldiers) under Osinski, but it was soon replaced by the dragoons of Dominik Zaslavsky.

There, an advanced detachment of mobile Tatar cavalry was allocated, which met (Zhovti Vody) or overtook (Korsun) the noble army and delayed it until the approach of the main forces, while simultaneously creating conditions for surrounding the enemy.

The fact that after the Battle of Makhnivka it was not possible to catch up with Wiśniowiecki's army, although it moved at the speed of its own convoy, indicates that it was pursued by an infantry Cossack detachment, built as a camp of carts.

By the way, the insufficient presence of cavalry in the Cossack army can also explain Wiśniowiecki's impunity and daring raid on Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine in June-July 1648.

These sentiments are evidenced by the entry in Mashkewicz's diary about this incident: "the prince wrote in gold, and the voivode sealed it with dirt".

It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that, having suffered defeat during the year 1648, the nobility, in covering the events near Makhivka and Starokostyantinov, presents ordinary episodes of the battle, which did not have a decisive influence on its course, as great military achievements of Wiśniowiecki.

All descriptions of Wiśniowiecki's activities are permeated by the leading idea that he was a brilliant commander, but his talent did not reveal itself, because he was hindered, and first of all, by the Kiev voivode Tyshkevych.

The battle, from a strategic point of view, although it involved significant forces, was of little importance and did not affect the pace of the uprising spread.

[18] Although the Cossacks managed to cross the river, they suffered heavy casualties and, more importantly, were unable to tie up the Polish forces until the arrival of Khmelnytsky, who was still in Pavolocha on 30 July.

Kryvonis kept the main Cossack forces there, while ordering peasant units to capture towns in the strip assigned to him by Khmelnytsky, to the border of Ostroh, Krasyliv, Sataniv and Kamianets-Podilskyi.

He sent a letter to Prince Zaslavsky, in which he motivated the disruption of the truce by the provocative actions of Wiśniowiecki, which, he said, outraged and irritated the entire Ukrainian people.