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Mongol Capture of Kiev

Type Event Region Eastern Europe Time 1240

From late November to December 1240, Batu's Mongol western campaign army besieged and captured Kiev, destroying the southern political-religious cent…

Timeline

  1. 1239–1240Kiev · KievAfter destroying the cities of northeastern Rus' the Mongols turned south. Kiev was then under Galicia-Volhynian control; Prince Danylo was away seeking aid, and the defense was led by voivode Dmitr. After the Mongol envoys were rejected, the army arrived at the walls in autumn and winter.
  2. 1240Kiev · KievThe Mongol army bombarded the walls day and night with trebuchets. The chronicles record the city falling in early December; in street fighting the defenders withdrew into the inner city, and many who crowded into the Church of the Tithes died when the building collapsed.
  3. 1240Kiev · KievAfter the city fell most of Kiev was burned and its population plummeted. A few years later the Franciscan friar John of Plano Carpini, who saw the city, reported only about two hundred households remaining. The Mongols then forced southwestern Rus' into submission and continued marching on Poland and Hungary.

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