In 1169 Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky sacked the city of Kiev. It was the most destructive of any of the attacks that had been made against the southern capital, for this time it was an attempt at ruin and not at control. When Prince Andrey ordered his soldiers to ravage the city, he did it because he had no intention of remaining there and making it his capital. The earlier princes had fought for Kiev; Prince Andrey fought against it. There was no point in plundering ruthlessly a capital which the conquerors desired for themselves. There was no reason for sparing a city which the conquerors desired to ruin. Everything that was of value, whether of ecclesiastical or civil character, was taken and the plunder-laden hosts resumed the march to their northern citadel of Suzdal. Even the Metropolitan of Kiev, the head of the Church, was taken along with them and Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky could look with satisfaction at his conquests. He could be sure that it would be decades, if not longer, before Kiev would rise again from the ruins and dare to threaten his hegemony. This sack of Kiev was the most important date in the history of the country after the introduction of Christianity, for it marked the separation of Kiev and the northern cities, the line of demarcation between Ukraine-Rus’ and Moscow. It is idle to speculate what was in the minds of conquerors and conquered at the very moment of the battle. There can be no doubt that the princes of Suzdal were the lineal descendants of Volodymyr and Yaroslav. There can be no doubt too that their armies were largely composed of men who had never seen and felt the charm of Kiev, who had no appreciation for the ancient culture of the old metropolis. Ukrainian thought has been insistent for centuries that this was a foreign conquest. The princes of Galicia with the downfall of Kiev took in a few years the title of Grand Princes of Rus’. They proudly ignored the new principalities and strove to continue the old traditions. To Moscow and the northern princes, this conquest meant the transfer to them of all the primacy that had clustered around the fallen city. They proudly called themselves and their metropolitans the rulers of Rus’, but even so they much preferred to call themselves the Grand Princes of Moscow. They sneered at their victims and it was many centuries before they sought to value the city from which they secured their power. Henceforth the two states went on their independent ways and whatever unity still survived was to perish in the new historical developments. While Kiev was still struggling to repair the damage of the terrible plundering, there appeared a new invader. In 1224 there came the first onslaught of the forces of Genghis Khan, the dread lord of the Mongolian Empire. He defeated the combined princes at a battle on the Kalka River and killed Mstislav of Kiev, but his forces soon withdrew.