AH Challenge: Ottoman Ukraine

Your challenge, should you accept it, is to have the Ottoman Empire conquer the Ukraine. There are no POD limitations and the Ottomans do not have to hold it, they can eventually lose it to the Russians. How can this be achieved?
 
Well they were not far from Kiev and were trying to get the Cossacks under their suzerainty. And I believe they attacked Lviv at one point.
That is true. What you have to do is to allow the Ottomans to hold that area for a fair amount of time against the inevitable Russian and Polish aunslaught.
 
That is true. What you have to do is to allow the Ottomans to hold that area for a fair amount of time against the inevitable Russian and Polish aunslaught.

It seems unlikely that a lot of Ottoman attention would be devoted to an area so strategically and economically unimportant and so far away, but I could see more substantial penetration of the Ukraine through the agency of the Crimean Tatars. Perhaps if for some reason Protestantism did better and was more disruptive to the Hapsburg Empire, the Ottomans might devote some resources to bolstering Crimean power with "force multipliers" like their superior logistical, artillery & firepower, organizational and training capabilities. If Kiev had been taken, that would have been a big blow. It would probably be a while before Russia and Poland were capable of serious challenge, especially if occupied elsewhere.

Another possibility might be the "Eastern Strategy", where a canal is built to the Caspian. That would leave Russia surrounded by hostile Islamic powers and perhaps cause the Ottomans/Crimeans to expand into the Ukraine to extend the perimeter.
 
Top