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Oleksandr Boldyrev from Odesa described the events of 1708-1709 very accurately in his article "History is a novel that really happened."

"It seems that Mazepa calculated everything, but he could not foresee the possibility of betrayal by one of his colonels (Colonel Ivan Nis), who showed Moscow troops a secret passage to Baturyn. The capital fell too quickly, and this predicted the defeat of Mazepa's entire plan in advance.

The old hetman understood this himself when, standing on the ruins of Baturyn, he said to Orlyk with deep despair in his voice: "The Lord did not bless!" Not everything in life can be predicted, even if you are a brilliant politician. You have to be able to take risks. Who knows, maybe if Mazepa had not waited for the arrival of the Swedish army, if, lulling Petro's vigilance, he had not sent almost all Ukrainian regiments away from him, if he had not allowed the Russian army to occupy the territory of the Hetmanate, if he had risen up earlier, relying on an alliance with Sweden, which had drawn almost all Russian forces to the North and Poland.