Battle of Loyew (1649)

Battle of Loyew
Part of the Khmelnytsky Uprising
Battle of Loyew on a 17th-century copper engraving
Date 31 July 1649 Location Loyew, Belarus Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Zaporozhian Cossacks	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Commanders and leaders
Stepan Pobodailo Mykhailo Krychevsky	Janusz Radziwiłł Wincenty Korwin Gosiewski
Strength
18,000-40,000	6,000
Casualties and losses
3,000-7,000	Unknown

The Battle of Loyew (Belarusian: Лоеў, Polish: Łojów), was a battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Near the site of the present-day town of Loyew in Belarus, a numerically superior force of Ukrainian Cossacks under the command of Cossack warleaders Stepan Pobodailo and Mykhailo Krychevsky was defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of hetman Janusz Radziwiłł. Radziwiłł was able to engage the Cossack forces before they merged. First, he defeated the army of Krychevsky, who was mortally wounded; then he defeated Pobodailo's army.

A Cossack army under Stepan Pobodailo (Polish: Stiepan Podobajła) with a force of about 7,000 took Loyew in summer of 1649 and began using it as an operational base in the region, from which they staged a series of pillaging raids.Hetman Janusz Radziwiłł took the Lithuanian army (about 6,000 strong, including about 800 Polish hussars, 1,000 infantry, the rest, lighter cavalry) in the field to challenge him.

Bohdan Khmelnytsky, leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks, learned about Radziwiłł's plans while besieging Zbarazh. He sent part of his forces, an army of about 10,000, under another Cossack leader, Mykhailo Krychevsky (Stanisław Krzeczowski), to support Podobajła against the Commonwealth.

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