Stefan Kunicki

Who is Stefan Kunicki?

Stefan Kunicki of Sas Coat of Arms was a hetman of Right-bank Ukraine.

Kunicki's origin is unknown, also as his youth and beginning of military career. Before 1673 Kunicki became a collaborator of hetman Petro Doroshenko. In 1673 he was sent twice to Warsaw to the Polish king Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki as an envoy of the Cossacks' hetman. On 25 February 1673 the sejm ennobled Kunicki, his five nephews and three more Cossacks who were loyal to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. When Kunicki was coming back from Warsaw to Czehryń, he was captured by the men of Ivan Samoylovych. Kunicki was detained until November 1674 when he was released after the intervention of the new Polish king Jan III Sobieski. In February 1675 Dymitr Jerzy Wiśniowiecki nominated him podstarości of Niemirów. In spring 1676 he went to Moldavia to rescue his nephews and other relatives from Turkish captivity. As a podstarości he also worked in the field of the intelligence service. He collected information from Polish agents about the Turkish and Tatar armies for hetman Dymitr Jerzy Wiśniowiecki.

In the second half of 1676 the situation in Right-bank Ukraine changed.