Vyhovsky studied at the Kyiv Brotherhood Collegium and excelled in languages (including Church Slavonic, Polish, Latin and Russian, in addition to Ukrainian) and calligraphy.

Elected hetman upon the death of Khmelnytsky, Vyhovsky sought to find a counterbalance to the pervasive Russian influence, which Moscow exerted over Ukraine following the 1654 Treaty of Pereiaslav.

Encouraged by his aristocratic friend Yuri Nemyrych, Vyhovsky entered negotiations with the Polish government, which resulted in the Treaty of Hadiach, signed on 16 September 1658.

Under the conditions of the treaty, Ukraine as the Grand Duchy of Ruthenia, would become a third and autonomous component of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the ultimate sovereignty of the King of Poland, but with its own military, courts and treasury.

About 100,000 of them were occupied by the siege of Konotop, the rest being massacred by Tatars when trying to follow after Vyhovsky's Cossacks, resulting in 20,000–30,000 lost among the Russians) led by the Muscovy boyar Aleksei Trubetskoi crossed into Ukraine.

Kyiv itself was held by the Russian troops after Voivodes Vasily Sheremetev and Yury Baryatinsky managed to repel two Vyhovsky's and one Polish assault on the city.

Consequently, Vyhovsky was charged with treason, arrested and executed without trial by a Polish commander colonel, Sebastian Machowski, making him another victim of the fratricidal power struggles that devastated Ukrainian territory in the latter half of the 17th century.