Moldova–Ukraine border
A long, winding line drawn inside the Soviet Union in 1940, when Moscow carved Soviet Moldavia out of Bessarabia and gave its north and south to Ukraine. About 450 km of it runs along Transnistria, the breakaway strip Moldova doesn’t control.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 29 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Moldova →Ukraine →
Bessarabia between empires
Bessarabia, the land between the Dniester and Prut rivers, was part of the old principality of Moldavia. Russia took it from the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812. Its southern districts changed hands several times in the 19th century, going back to Moldavia in 1856 and to Russia again in 1878.[2]
After the Russian Revolution, Bessarabia voted in 1918 to join Romania, and a treaty of 28 October 1920 recognised the union. The Soviet Union never accepted it, and in 1924 it set up a small Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on Ukrainian territory across the Dniester.[2]
Drawn in 1940
In June 1940 a Soviet ultimatum forced Romania to give up Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, and Soviet troops marched in on 28 June. The central districts, mostly Moldavian, were joined to part of the autonomous republic across the Dniester to form a Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in August. The Hotin district in the north and the southern districts of Cetatea Albă and Izmail went to Soviet Ukraine.[2]
Romania retook the region in 1941, as Germany’s ally, and the Soviet Union took it back in 1944.[2] The 1940 line between the Moldavian and Ukrainian republics was an internal Soviet boundary until the Soviet Union broke up and Moldova declared independence on 27 August 1991.[6]
A port for a highway
Moldova never claimed Ukrainian territory, but small stretches that mattered for trade held up a border treaty for years. Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Petru Lucinschi finally signed a treaty on the delimitation and demarcation of the border in Kyiv on 18–19 August 1999, with a protocol exchanging equal areas.[3]
Moldova handed Ukraine an 8 km stretch of highway near the village of Palanca that had cut Ukraine’s Odesa region in two, and Ukraine gave Moldova part of the town of Basarabeasca and its railway. Ukraine also handed Moldova a few hundred metres of Danube shore at Giurgiulești, so that Moldova could build an oil terminal on the river.[3] Palanca’s villagers still own more than 900 hectares on the far side of the road, 7.7 km of which went to Ukraine, and for years needed to pass a border check to reach their fields.[4]
The Transnistrian stretch
When Moldova became independent, the Russians east of the Dniester declared a republic of their own, and Moldova’s government could not bring it back under control by force.[6] About 453 km of the Moldova–Ukraine border runs along this breakaway region, Transnistria.[5]
The EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine monitors that segment, as well as the 411 km administrative line between the two banks of the Dniester inside Moldova.[5][1]
Timeline
1812
Treaty of Bucharest
Russia takes Bessarabia from the Ottoman Empire.[2]
192028 October 1920
Union with Romania recognised
A treaty recognises Bessarabia as part of Romania.[2]
1924
Moldavian ASSR
The Soviet Union creates an autonomous republic inside Ukraine, east of the Dniester.[2]
194028 June 1940
Soviet takeover
Bessarabia is split between a new Moldavian republic and Soviet Ukraine.[2]
199127 August 1991
Independence
The 1940 line becomes an international border.[6]
199918 August 1999
Border treaty
Moldova and Ukraine sign the treaty and a land-swap protocol.[3][4]
More borders
Sources
- [1]Where we work? · EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM)
- [2]Moldova: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy)
- [3]Ukrainian-Moldovan border treaty: an unsung success · Jamestown Foundation, Monitor · 1999-08
- [4]At Palanca, it takes a passport to go digging · United Nations in Moldova (UNDP)
- [5]Conflict Resolution · EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM)
- [6]Moldova: Independent Moldova · Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy)
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.