On the eve of the offensive, the pro-Ukrainian garrison was significantly weakened by the murder of Yuriy Lastivchenko at the hotel "Yevropejskyj" (was destroyed during World War II).

Some of the soldiers, a small group of cadets from the Vilnius School in particular, went to Kyiv instead of their homes, where they later joined the Sloboda Ukraine Haydamaky kish.

The first day of the Soviet troops' positioning in Poltava, a conflict arose between Muravyov and the local executive committee of the Council of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.

[4] During telephone conversations with Antonov, Muravyov said that representatives of the executive committee were skeptical of the "Kharkiv" government, planned to make Poltava neutral in relation to both the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Rada.

Vsevolod Petriv, the commander of the Kost Gordienko regiment, mentioned in his memoires the help of the local Red Cossacks in the liberation from the Russian Bolsheviks.