Petro Doroshenko Hetman of Zaporizhian Host, aiming to gain control of Ukraine but facing defeats from other factions struggling over control of that region, in a final bid to preserve his power in Ukraine, signed a treaty with Sultan Mehmed IV in 1669 that recognized the Cossack Hetmanate as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

Trying to capitalize on that weakness, Tatars, who commonly raided across the Commonwealth borders in search of loot and plunder, invaded, this time allying themselves with Cossacks under Hetman Doroshenko.

Unprepared for war, and torn by internal conflict between the king Michael I and the szlachta nobility, the Commonwealth Sejm could not act to raise taxes and gather a larger army.

At that time, the Tatars, who were not taking part in the siege, aided by Hetman Petro Doroshenko's Cossacks and some Ottoman troops divided into three main groups, ravaged the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Grand Hetman of the Crown John III Sobieski, who had only 2.5-3 thousand cavalry and dragoons, moved on October 5 from Krasnystaw against the Tatars, without wagons and taking two horses per soldier.

After a strenuous day and night march, the crown army, in the strength of a thousand soldiers (the rest could not keep up and stayed behind), caught up with the Tatars at dawn on October 14 and smashed them in battles at Petranka and Kalush.

The extraordinary success of the expedition with such a small force was due to the fact that Sobieski was always able to choose the right direction of action, thanks to which the rapidly advancing Polish troops using the Tatar marching technique were able to catch up with and smash individual enemy cavalries.

The Polish-Lithuanian army, numbering some 30,000 soldiers, under the command of Grand Crown Hetman John Sobieski, besieged the Khotyn fortress in the first days of November 1673.

It was protected from the land side by earth ramparts and numerous defensive fortifications built on the site of a former Polish camp from half a century before.

After a cannon salvo, the infantry and dragoons stormed the ramparts, pushing back the enemy and making room for the cavalry.

The Battle of Khotyn ended with a total victory for the Commonwealth, but it did not bring a breakthrough in the war and did not lead to the recovery of Kamieniec Podolski.

[6]: 649 Over the next year, however, the Polish forces were subject to attrition, as the Sejm again refused to raise taxes and pay the army, resulting in mass desertions of unpaid soldiery.

Nonetheless, in 1674 the Commonwealth resumed the offensive, taking advantage of a new Russo-Turkish conflict that year, and the Polish-Ottoman war remained undecided.

[5]: 275 In the early summer of 1675 the Ottoman forces of Ibrahim Şişman (Abraham the Fat) crossed the Polish border into Podolia and started its rapid march towards Lwów along the banks of the Dniester.

The Polish king John III Sobieski decided to concentrate his troops in and around Lwów[9]: 653  and face the assaulting Muslim army after more reinforcements arrived.

[citation needed] The 1700-strong group of Polish hussars was joined by three banners (300 men) of Lithuanian light cavalry under hetman Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł.

In the summer of 1675, a 30,000 strong Turkish-Tatar army under command of Ibrahim Shyshman entered Red Ruthenia, a province of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

His wife disagreed with this decision, and threatened to commit suicide if her husband proceeded with the planned surrender, thereby stiffening his spine and creating an atmosphere for defending the castle.

Furthermore, Anna Dorota urged the defenders to carry out an attack on Ottoman positions, which resulted in heavy losses among the invaders.

Facing danger from forces of Jan III Sobieski, which concentrated near Lwow, the Turks decided to end the siege on October 11.

[6]: 655  The peace treaty partially reversing those from Buczacz: the Ottomans kept approximately two thirds of the territories they gained in 1672, and the Commonwealth no longer was obliged to pay any kind of tribute to the Empire; a large number of Polish prisoners were released by the Ottomans.The Sejm rejected the treaty, through the actions of Austrian diplomats and Pope Innocent XI.