the Russian Empire. New fortresses were built on the Kuban in the 1780s-1790s.

Until the 1790s, these fortresses and the abandoned Cossack settlements on the Laba River and in Taman remained the only indication of Russian presence in the area. More intensive settlement started in 1792-1794, when Black Sea Cossack Host (created in 1787 in southern Ukraine from former Zaporozhian Cossacks)