With the naval reforms adopted by Kapudan Paşa Cezayirli Gazi Hasan still gathering pace, a further war with Russia broke out in August 1787, prompted by various Russian infringements into Ottoman territory and an awareness in Istanbul of Catherine's ultimate goal, that of re-establishing the old Byzantine Empire through the seizure and division of all Ottoman lands. It is more than possible that war would not have been declared if the tasks given to Hasan had not been so extensive for, at the time the declaration of war was under discussion in the Divan-ı Humayun, he was with the fleet in Egypt quelling a local uprising. For this reason, he was not present in Istanbul and so unable to explain that, with reforms to the navy only just beginning to take effect, the navy was not ready for war. Instead, lacking the advice of the Kapudan Paşa, the war faction of the Divan, convinced that war against the infidel overrode any concerns of practicality, won the argument. Among those who opposed this rationale was Ahmed Resmi, a diplomat who favoured negotiation and peace over Holy War. He accused those who had influence of being ‘ignorant scoundrels’ who did not respect ‘this desirable and customary law’, bluntly adding that the ‘simple-minded ones, not known for their thinking ability, engineered the Russian campaigns of that earlier war that broke out in 1768.

The seaborne element in this new war against Russia was primarily fought in the coastal waters of the northern Black Sea shoreline, where the Russians were attempting to secure unrestricted entry into the Black Sea through the capture of Ottoman-held fortresses that stood at the mouth of the Don and Dnepr estuaries. Catherine, since the previous war with the Ottoman Empire that had been brought to a conclusion in 1774, had continued to improve the standing of her fleet, using the proclaimed independence of the Crimean Kharnate, now effectively under full Russian protection, to establish an additional naval base at Sevastapol.