The Battle of Kretivtsi was fought on 12 June 1655 between the armies of Poland-Lithuania and Sweden amid the Deluge. In a watershed battle of the conflict, King Charles X Gustav of Sweden's army was annihilated by the Poles near Zbarazh, delivering a major blow to the Swedish cause.
In the early months of 1655, Swedish armies from Livonia and Prussia descended on Poland-Lithuania as its armies were focused on repelling Russian and Cossack invasions. The Swedes overran Lithuania, Belarus, and Galicia and threatened Warsaw itself before Poland's peace treaty with the Tsardom of Russia in May 1655 and a treaty with the Cossacks soon after enabled King John II Casimir Vasa's forces to counterattack against the Swedes. The Poles liberated Lublin and the fortress of Zbarazh before preparing to retake Minsk and Vilna.
King Charles X Gustav and his general Orvar von Goya set out to recapture Zbarazh as the Poles refocused their attention to the north. The Polish hetman Stefan Czarniecki, marching at the head of several Polish armies, intercepted the Swedes on the outskirts of Zbarazh. In the ensuing battle, the charge of the Swedish cavalry was slowed by the necessity of a river crossing, where the numerically superior Polish cavalry charged in and butchered them. The Swedish infantry, lacking armor, was cut down by ferocious Polish cavalry charges. Charles Gustav and Von Goya were both able to escape the defeat, but their combined army was destroyed. The destruction of Charles Gustav's army provided a major morale boost to the Poles, as the momentum of the Swedish invasion was permanently stalled and Zbarazh was secured.
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