Lewenhaupt is to bring a fresh supply of ammunition and food to support the Swedish army in its proposed march on the Russian capital of Moscow.

He had found, however, that gathering the needed supplies and preparing the army for an overland march took longer than expected.

Charles XII, after waiting for Lewenhaupt for weeks, abandons his camps on September 26 and decides to invade Ukraine, hoping to reach this rich granary before winter.

Lewenhaupt is at this time only about eighty miles from Charles' position.

According to the Russian history, the Ukrainian forces, under the command of Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa, had been in discussions with Charles for some time, and at this point he, Mazepa, officially allied himself to the Swedes in order to gain independence from Russia.

However, there is no direct evidence or documentary proof of any preliminary negotiations between Mazepa and Charles.

Mazepa, however, had sent most of his Cossacks to Belarus and Right-bank Ukraine to contain Polish forces, and Charles's decision to turn to Ukraine, according to Hrushevsky, was unexpected for Mazepa.

His plans were that Charles's forces would move forward to Moscow and then he could create his own uprising in Ukraine.

Only three thousand Cossacks have followed their Hetman, however, with the rest remaining loyal to the Tsar.

Mazepa's call to arms is further weakened by the Orthodox clergy's allegiance to the Tsar.

Peter, having observed these movements, decides to attack Lewenhaupt's smaller force before Charles can support it.

As Charles forces are moving towards Ukraine, Peter sent his Moscow reserves to intercept them at Starodub and asked Mazepa to supply some reinforcements.

Prince Aleksandr Menshikov moves quickly to intercept Lewenhaupt's force, attacking it while crossing the River Sozh near a small village that gives name to the Battle of Lesnaya.

His forces meet the Russian attack, but they are amazed to find that the new Russian army gives them a serious fight.

The Swedes lose one thousand men dead and wounded and four thousand missing in the battle.

Russian casualties total one thousand one hundred and eleven killed and two thousand eight hundred and fifty-six wounded (Cossacks and Kalmyks not included), about one third of those engaged (Lewenhaupt, probably basing his account on that of a Russian prisoner-of-war, in his diary claims sixteen thousand rather than twelve thousand Russian combatants).

Lewenhaupt, seeing that he is about to lose, decides to rejoin Charles with all speed, so he abandons the cannon, the cattle and most of the food, driving some of the soldiers to mutiny.

Some of the Swedish soldiers had gotten drunk after stealing the alcohol, and Lewenhaupt had been forced to leave about one thousand of them in the woods.

By the time they finally reach Charles and the main force on October 19 (October 8 OS), virtually no supplies and only six thousand men remain, vastly increasing Charles' victuals problem.

Another effect of the battle of Lesnaya is that it has persuaded the Russian army that they are a match for Sweden's soldiers.

This newfound confidence will aid their morale during the 1709 campaign in which they destroy Charles' main Swedish army at Poltava.

Peter will later refer to Lesnaya as "the mother of the Battle of Poltava."

Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa's alliance with Peter of Russia has caused heavy losses of Cossacks, and Russian interference in the Hetmanate's internal affairs.

When the Tsar refuses to defend Ukraine against the Polish King Stanislaus Leszczynski, an ally of Charles XII of Sweden, Mazepa and the Zaporozhian Cossacks alliy themselves with the Swedes on October 28, 1708.

Mazepa is hesitant and gathers the Starshyna Council to decide the further course of actions.

The council, composed of Cossack military officers, approves the negotiations with Charles.

He leaves his last Cossack reserves in Baturyn and moves to the Desna River for negotiations with Charles.

When Peter hears of this move, he sends Aleksandr Menshikov to Baturyn.

Evidence of settlement in the area of present-day Baturyn dates back to the Neolithic era, with Bronze Age and Scythian remains also having been unearthed.

According to some modern writers, the earliest fortress at Baturyn would have been created by the Grand Principality of Chernihiv in the  eleventh century.

The contemporary name for the settlement, however, is first mentioned in the 1625, likely referring to the fortress of Stefan Batory, King of Poland, Prince of Transylvania, and Grand Duke of Lithuania, which had been built and named in his honor.

The area had been part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (in the Kijów Voivodeship of the Crown of Poland) since before the Union of Lublin.

Control of the town had been wrested from the Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, after which natives of Ruthenia had gained some degree of autonomy under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky and his Cossack state.

Baturyn had in 1648 been transformed into a Cossack regional center (sotnia), first hosting the Starodub Cossack Regiment, and then the Nizhyn Regiment.

Home to four hundred and eighty-six Cossacks and two hundred and seventy-four villagers by 1654, Baturyn had been granted Magdeburg Rights.

As the settlement has grown, more merchants have flocked to it, and great fairs are held quarterly.

The capital of the Cossack Hetmanate, an autonomous Cossack republic in Left-bank Ukraine, has been located in Baturyn from 1669.

The area has prospered under the rule of Mazepa, increasing in size and population (with upwards of twenty thousand residents).

The period of the Ruin was effectively over when Mazepa was elected hetman, and brought stability to the state.

He has united Ukraine which, once again, is under the rule of one hetman.

The Hetmanate has flourished under his rule, particularly in literature, and architecture.

The architectural style that has developed during his reign is called the Cossack Baroque, distinct from the Western European Baroque in having more moderate ornamentation and simpler forms, and as such is considered more constructivist.

Baturyn boasts forty churches and chapels, two monasteries and a college for government officials and diplomats (the Kantseliarsky Kurin).

Baturyn is mercilessly sacked and razed by the Russian army of Menshikov on November 13, 1708, and all of its inhabitants are slaughtered.

Dmytro Chechel, the commanding officer of the Baturin garrison, is broken at the wheel.

Historian Serhiy Pavlenko estimates that six thousand to seventy-five hundred civilians and five thousand to sixty-five hundred military personnel were murdered.

A series of repressive measures spreads throughout the Cossack Hetmanate, along with claims that Mazepa has deserted to the Swedes in order to subjugate Ukraine to Poland, provide Unia, and root Orthodoxy out of Ukraine.

Tsar decrees are sent to strashyna—the equivalent of company commanders—inviting them to Hlukhiv.

Mazepa, in Hlukhiv, is figuratively dismissed as Hetman and replaced with the Starodub Colonel Ivan Skoropadsky.