According to a chronicle of 1864 written by Samuil Velichko, Ostryanyn, who had just been elected Hetman, issued an address to the Little Russian people on the eve of the campaign in March 1638. He declared that he would "go with his army to the Ukraine in order to liberate the Orthodox people from the yoke of oppression and torment of the Polish tyranny and claim vengeance for grievances, ruin and torturous abuse... suffered by the entire Russian populace, living on both sides of the Dnieper."