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Polish capture of Kiev was an episode in the internal struggle for power in the state of Kievan Ruthenia between Sviatopolk I and his brother Yaroslav I. After having been expelled from Kiev by Yaroslav and his Novgorodian adherents, Sviatopolk withdrew to the court of his father-in-law, Boleslaus I of Poland. He persuaded the latter to support his cause and enter the conflict on his side. The army of Boleslaus crossed the borders in 1018 and supposedly reached Kiev later the same year.

According to a chronicle by Thietmar of Merseburg, who supposedly obtained detailed information about Boleslaus' Kievan campaign from Sviatopolk himself, Boleslaus captured several noble ladies upon entering the city, including Vladimir's widow and his daughter Predslava, whom he took as a concubine. As Gallus Anonymus has it, the war started when Boleslaus was refused Predslava's hand, but this testimony is not given credit by most historians. According to some sources the Polish troops were deployed in Kiev for about half a year, after which their endless plundering led to a popular uprising. Other modern historians often dispute the fact that Boleslaus entered the city at all, despite several folk tales popular both in modern Ukraine and Poland. Among such legends is the history of the Polish coronation weapon, the Szczerbiec, and the tale of the Latskie Vorota, on which the Szczerbiec was supposedly notched.

Despite little sources, it is commonly believed that Boleslaus' forces left Kievan Ruthenia shortly after their arrival and the only permanent gain for the Polish ruler was the acquisition of the so-called Red Strongholds, which had been captured by him earlier in the campaign.

• Kievan Rus
• History of Kiev city
• History of Poland
• 1018