Romania–Ukraine border

Bucovina and the delta

In the north the line crosses the Tisza valley and the forested Carpathians, where the peaks average about 5,000 feet, before reaching the plateau of Bucovina. Austria annexed Bucovina from Moldavia in 1777, and Romania incorporated it after the First World War.^[1]

On 26 June 1940, after the Nazi–Soviet pact, the Soviet Union demanded Bessarabia and, without German agreement, Northern Bucovina as well; Romania accepted two days later. It regained them during the war, but the 1944 armistice restored the 1940 line and the 1947 peace treaty confirmed it. A joint commission marked the border in 1948 and 1949. In the south it follows the Kilia and Old Stambul arms of the Danube through a low, marshy delta to the sea.^[1]

Snake Island

Romania took its sea boundary dispute with Ukraine to the International Court of Justice in 2004. On 3 February 2009 the Court drew an equidistance line between the two coasts and chose no base points on Ukraine’s Serpents’ (Snake) Island, giving it only its 12-nautical-mile territorial sea; the boundary follows that arc before heading out to sea.^[2]

The island, a rocky outcrop of 0.17 square kilometres near the Danube delta, became famous on the first day of Russia’s 2022 invasion when its Ukrainian guards refused a Russian warship’s demand to surrender. Russia held it until 30 June 2022, when it withdrew; Moscow called this a goodwill gesture, while Ukraine’s military said it had forced the garrison out.^[3]

“it should have no effect on the delimitation other than that stemming from the role of the 12-nautical-mile arc of its territorial sea”^[2]