[citation needed] During the 1667 truce of Andrusovo, the region was under the condominium of both the Tsardom of Muscovy and the Kingdom of Poland, and in 1686, with the signing of the Treaty of Perpetual Peace, it passed under Russian suzerainty.

Just before the Koliyivshchyna, the Russian authorities created Novorossiya Governorate, centered on Kremenchuk, which included territories of New Serbia, Slovianoserbia, and northern parts of the Zaporizhzhian region.

For most of that time it was technically controlled by Poland, but it was rarely peaceful, and was widely regarded (from the perspective of the claimant governments) as turbulent and dangerous, the refuge of outlaws and bandits.

In addition to many invasions by neighbouring countries, inhabitants of the Zaporozhe had to deal with an influx of new settlers from all directions and conflicts between the szlachta (Polish nobility) and independent Cossacks, who enjoyed a kind of autonomy in the region.

In 1709, Tsar Peter I ordered the destruction of the Old Sich, forcing the Zaporozhian Cossacks to flee to Oleshky, on the Black Sea in Ottoman territory.