Catherine the Great promotes Lambros Katsonis to Lieutenant Colonel on July 24, 1789.

Katsonis is an aggressive commander, and does not hesitate to confront the Ottoman navy whenever possible; in June he had defeated a Turkish fleet of fourteen vessels between Syros and Mykonos, and in the next month he scored another victory in a battle between Syros and Delos.

As a Greek privateer, Katsonis had participated in the Orlov Revolt of 1770, then entered the service of the Russian Empire under Catherine, reaching the rank of Major.

Following the outbreak of the Russo–Turkish War in 1787, he had gone to Trieste in spring 1789 and recruited Greek crews and ships, forming a fleet to operate Ottoman shipping in the Ionian and Aegean Seas.

On his arrival in the Aegean in summer 1789, Katsonis had seized, garrisoned, and fortified the island of Kea as a base, leading from there numerous raids against Ottoman shipping in the northern Aegean, from the Chalcidice to the Dardanelles, and had even engaged in a short but eventful blockade of the Dardanelles Straits.