According to the chronicle, Igor was left in Kiev with his new wife Olga while Oleg assembled a host of a variety of ethnic groups: Varangians, Slavs, Chuds, Krivichians, Merians, Polyanians, Severians, Derevlians, Radimichians, Croats, Dulebians, and Tivercians.

When his navy was within sight of Constantinople, he found the city gate closed and the entry into the Golden Horn barred with iron chains.

At this point, Oleg resorted to subterfuge: he effected a landing on the shore and had some 2,000 dugout boats (monoxyla) equipped with wheels.

Current scholarship tends to explain the silence of Greek sources with regard to Oleg's campaign by the inaccurate chronology of the Primary Chronicle.

Thirteen years later, in 949, Rus' troops sailed on nine vessels to accompany the Greeks in their expedition against the Emirate of Crete.