Wars with the Kievan Rus' eventually threw the Khazars into decline. By the 900's, the Kievan Rus' had restricted the Khazars to Ukraine and Crimea, all that remained of traditional Khazaria. The Arab caliphate had broken up by this point, and the Seljuk Turks were beginning their migrations westward.
The Rus' warlords Oleg and Sviatoslav I of Kiev launched several wars against the Khazar khaganate. The Schechter Letter relates the story of a campaign against Khazaria by HLGW (Oleg) around 941 (in which Oleg was defeated by the Khazar general Pesakh); this calls into question the timeline of the Primary Chronicle and other related works on the history of the Eastern Slavs. Sviatoslav finally attacked Ukraine in the 960's. The Khazars, however, hired Bulgar mercenaries and fought back, prompting their allies, the Norse of Novgorod, who had recently united into the Russian Principality of Novgorod.
The death of Sviatoslav in battle against the Khazars marked the fall of the Kievan Rus. Due to his death and the murder of his alleged heirs, the Kievan Rus' quickly broke apart, degenerating into minor states and kingdoms. Having achieved victory over the Rus', the Khazars returned to Khazaria.
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