The war followed the external tensions within Poland. The true power behind the Polish throne was the Russian ambassador Nicholas Repnin and the Russian army, with King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski being a former favourite of the Russian Empress Catherine II. Nikolay Repnin had forcefully passed the Perpetual Treaty of 1768 between Poland and Russia. This treaty was highly contradictory to the well being of Poland and led to massive revolts by nobility, church, and peasants. In one fortified town called Bar near the Ottoman border an armed confederation was created on the 29 February 1768, led by a landed Polish noble named Casmir Pulaski. The Russian army which heavily outnumbered the confederates defeated them in the Podolia of Ukraine. On the 20th of June 1768 Russia captured the for