 At the same time, the Zaporozhian's other enemy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was also weakened and on the verge of being partitioned.This meant that militarily the Zaporozhian Sich was becoming increasingly superfluous, but at the same time their existence caused friction with Imperial Russian authorities who wanted to colonise the newly acquired lands that the Cossacks inhabited.After a number of Cossack attacks on Serbian colonies and with Cossack support offered to Yemelyan Pugachev, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great issued an order to General Pyotr Tekeli to end the troublesome Sich.