Wild Fields in the context of "Ukrainian Cossacks"

Between 1441 and 1774, the Crimean Khanate and the Nogai Horde conducted slave raids throughout lands primarily controlled by Russia and Poland–Lithuania. Concentrated in Eastern Europe, but also stretching to the Caucasus and parts of Central Europe, these raids were often supported by the Ottoman Empire and involved the transportation of European men, women, and children to the Muslim world, where they were put on the market and sold as part of the Crimean slave trade and the Ottoman slave trade. The regular abductions of people over the course of numerous incursions by the Crimeans and the Nogais greatly drained Eastern Europe's human and economic resources, consequently playing an important role in the emergence of the semi-militarized Cossacks, who organized retaliatory campaigns against the raiders and their Ottoman backers.

Trading posts in Crimea had previously been established by the Genoese and the Venetians to facilitate earlier Western European slave routes. The Crimean–Nogai raids largely targeted the "Wild Fields" of the Pontic–Caspian steppe, which extends about 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of the Black Sea and which now contains the majority of the combined population of southeastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia.

The Zaporozhian Cossacks or Zaporizhian Cossacks, also known as the Zaporozhian Cossack Army or the Zaporozhian Host (Ukrainian: Військо Запорозьке, romanized: Viisko Zaporozke), were Cossacks who lived beyond (that is, downstream from) the Dnieper Rapids. They were predominantly Ruthenians, but also included other ethnic groups (most notably their legendary Kosh Otaman Ivan Sirko was of Moldavian origin). Along with Registered Cossacks and Sloboda Cossacks, Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in the history of Ukraine and the ethnogenesis of Ukrainians.

The Zaporozhian Sich grew rapidly in the 15th century from serfs fleeing the more controlled parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The least controlled region, that was located between the Dniester and mid-Volga was first known from the 15th century as the Wild Fields, which was subject to colonization by the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Zaporozhian Host became established as a well-respected political entity with a parliamentary system of government. During the course of the 16th, 17th and well into the 18th century, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were a strong political and military force that challenged the authority of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsardom of Russia, and the Crimean Khanate.

Yedisan (also Jedisan or Edisan; Ukrainian: Єдисан, romanized: Yedysan, Romanian: Edisan, Ottoman Turkish: یدیصان, Turkish: Yedisan, Russian: Едисан, romanized: Yedisan, Dobrujan Tatar: Ğedísan) was a conditional name for Özi [Paşa] Sancağı (Ochakiv Sanjak) of Silistra Eyalet, a territory located in today's Southern Ukraine between the Dniester and the Southern Bug (Boh). It was placed by the Ottomans under the control of the Nogai Horde in the 17th and 18th centuries and was named after one of the Nogai Hordes. In the Russian Empire, it was referred to as Ochakov Oblast, while the Ottoman Turks called it simply Özü after the city of Ochakiv which served as its administrative center. Another name used was Western Nogai.

Geographically, it was the western part of the so-called Wild Fields that sprawled to the north of the Black Sea between the Dniester and Dnieper rivers. It lies east of Budjak and Bessarabia, south of Podolia and Zaporizhzhia, and west of Taurida. Since the mid-20th century, the territory has been divided between southwestern Ukraine and southeastern Moldova (southern Transnistria).

Sirko's campaigns were a series of raids and military actions carried out by Cossack leader Ivan Sirko during his fight against Crimean Khanate, Nogai Horde and Ottoman Empire, in 1654–1679.

Ivan Sirko's campaigns played a crucial role in weakening the Crimean Khanate, forcing the Tatars to retreat from areas of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and paved a way for settlers from Ukraine, which contributed to civilization of the Wild Fields.